"' '■lii 




Class __2^ 
Book 






GoRyTight]^^. 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



BOOKS BY ALICE BROWN 



My Love and I. 
The Secret of the Clan. 
Vanishing Points. 
Robin Hood's Barn. 



PUBLISHED BY 
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO 
DALLAS • ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN & CO.. Limited 

LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. 

TORONTO 



Photograph by Alice Boughton 

MARY ELLEN 

Miss E f f i e Shannon 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 



A Play of New England 



BY 

ALICE BROWN 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 






.C^ 



Copyright, 1915, 
By WINTHROP AMES. 



. All acting rights, professional and amateur, 

I / are reserved by Winthrop Ames. 



FEB -4 1915 

g.Gl,D 39577 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 

THE AMERICAN PRIZE PLAY 

In 1913 a prize of $10,000 was offered by 
Winthrop Ames for the best play, to be sub- 
mitted anonymously, by an American author. 
Nearly seventeen hundred manuscripts were 
received; and in June, i9i4,the judges, Augustus 
Thomas, Adolph Klauber and Winthrop Ames, 
awarded the prize to " Children of Earth" by 
Alice Brown. On January 12, 191 5, Mr. Ames 
produced the play at The Booth Theatre, 
New York. 




PROGRAMME OF THE FIRST PERFORMANCE 



WINTHROP AMES 

PRESENTS 

CHILDREN OF EARTH 

A Play of New England 
By ALICE BROWN 



THE PEOPLE OF THE PLAY 



MARY ELLEN BARSTOW . . Miss Effie Shannon 
AARON BARSTOW (her brother) 

Mr. Herbert Kelcey 
ANITA BARSTOW (Aaron's daughter) 

Miss Olive Wyndham 

PETER HALE Mr. A. E. Anson 

JANE HALE (Peter's wife) . . Miss Gilda Varesi 
ADAM HALE (Peter's cousin) . Mr. Theodor von Eltz 

NATHAN BUELL Mr. Reginald Barlow 

UNCLE EPH grout .... Mr. Cecil Yapp 
CYNTHIA COLEMAN .... Mrs. Kate Jepson 
People of the Village 

the scenes of the play 

ACT I. — Mary Ellen Barstow's Sitting Room. An 
Afternoon in Spring. 

ACT II. — The Hale Farm. The Same Afternoon, 
ACT III. — Pine Tree Spring. Daybreak the Next Morn- 
ing. 

ACT IV. — The Barstow Sitting Room. 



The PifAY Propuced by Winthrop Ames 



WINTHROP AMES 
WHO "still betters what is done" 

IN PLAYS AND ACTING 



PERSONS AND SCENES OF THE PLAY 

MARY ELLEN BARSTOW. 
AARON BARSTOW, her brother. 
ANITA BARSTOW, Aaron's daughter. 
PETER HALE. 
JANE HALE, his wife. 
ADAM HALE, Peter's cousin. 
NATHAN BUELL. 
UNCLE EPH GROUT. 
CYNTHIA COLEMAN. 

ACT I. — MiD-AFTEKNOON IN SPRING. ThE BarSTOW SITTING 

Room. 
ACT II. — A Little Later the Same Afternoon. The 

DOORYARD of MiLL RoAD FaRM. 

ACT III. — Daybreak the Next Morning. Pine Tree 
Spring. 

ACT IV. — The Same Morning a Little Later. The 
Barstow Sitting Room. 



ACT I 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 



ACT I 

Mid-afternoon of a spring day in the sitting room 
of a New England colonial house, furnished in 
keeping with excellent, though plain, old-fash- 
ioned furniture. There are two windoivs, with 
folding shutters, looking out on the front yard 
and the path that goes down to the road. There 
is a door opening into the front hall, a door 
into the passageway serving as a pantry, lead- 
ing into the kitchen, and a door into a bedroom. 
The room is wainscoted, and over the large fire- 
place, with its Hessian Hredogs, the wall is pan- 
eled, with two little cupboards above the mantel, 
one on each side. On the mantel are old brass 
candlesticks, a tall vase of lilacs, daguerreotypes, 
etc. Between the windows is an old-fashioned 
desk with secretary top (the shelves filled with 
books) and near it a small round table, on it a 
tall vase of spring flowers. Between the hall door 
and the door to the kitchen is a sideboard, and 
above it are shelves, the upper ones filled with 
china and the lowest with pewter. There are 
four chairs drawn up to the large square dining 
table in the middle of the room, and these, like 
I 



2 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

the other chairs, are of a simple antique pattern. 
There is a grandfather clock, and, on the wall, a 
colored print. There are braided rugs, and at 
the windows soft white curtains. 

Aaron Barstow, a man of Hfty-tzvo, sits at the desk, 
rapidly examining papers, tearing them and toss- 
ing them into the waste-basket at his side. The 
papers are in neat packets, as if they had been 
carefully put azvay, but he tears them ruth- 
lessly, as one used to more important zvork. He 
is a hard-featured, self-contained man, of a sharp, 
concentrated glance and a prompt, masterful 
manner. He is not a man of initiative who could 
govern new situations intuitively. He has 
learned to control one sort of business and put 
all his force in there, sometimes with the outlay 
of an inordinate amount of energy. For though 
he is a city manufacturer, he has never ceased to 
be a country man — the type you see passing the 
plate in a country meeting house — canny, not 
humorous, limited, and taking back every time to 
old ideas. 

Anita, carrying a pile of men's clothing, comes in 
from the front hall. She is a charming girl, with 
all the modern graces and a lovely warmth and 
simplicity of nature sometimes crossed by a streak 
of hardness zvhere she has been obliged to revolt 
against father and his ways. She wears a blue 
dress of a fashionable cut, though quite simple, 
as her sense of fitness has prescribed. She carries 
the clothes to the large table and drops them on 
it with a manifest air of distaste. 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 3 

AARON 

That you, Nita? 

ANITA 

Yes. Come, look at these. [As he pays no atten- 
tion.^ Father! 

AARON 

[Looking roundA 
What ye got there ? 

ANITA 

Grandfather's clothes. 

AARON 

Well, they won't bite ye. 

ANITA 

I've caught it of Aunt Mary Ellen. She can't bear 
to touch them. 

AARON 

Say so ? 

ANITA 

No. But you can see. It's all been too much for 
her. He was sick so long. And then the funeral. 
And we let her go through it alone. 

AARON 

We couldn't ha' got here for the services if we'd 
sailed as soon as she cabled. 



4 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

ANITA 

We needn't have stayed three weeks after. 

AARON 

I was more or less busy, you may remember. 

ANITA 

Buying rubber. 

AARON 

[With a dry jocularity A 
You were more or less busy yourself. 

ANITA 

Buying clothes. We were quitters, that's all. 

AARON 

Oh, come, come. 

ANITA 

We simply left Aunt Mary Ellen to take care of 
that helpless old man. I don't believe you've been 
down here once a year since mother died. I haven't. 

AARON 

Well, we're here now. 

ANITA 

Yes, and in the three hours we've been here, I can 
see we're too late to be any help. 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 5 

AARON 

What you goin' to do with them? 

ANITA 

Aunt Mary Ellen wants to know whether you can 
wear them. I suppose she thinks they're nice, poor 
dear. 

[She holds up a waistcoat to examine it.] 

AARON 

Tell her to give 'em away. Godfrey! don't that 
look like father ! Threadbare ! 

ANITA 

Are those his papers? 

AARON 

Yes. Worthless. Little picayune things. 

ANITA 

What are you in such a hurry for, to clear them out ? 

AARON 

Gettin' things to rights. So your aunt can go back 
with us. 

ANITA 

You don't mean — to live? 



6 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

AARON 

Course I do. 

ANITA 

She wouldn't know what do with herself. 

AARON 

She'll be company for you. Do what your mother'd 
done, if she'd lived. 

ANITA 

She doesji't dream of leaving here. 

AARON 

No. I ain't told her yet. 
[Cynthia Coleman hursts in from the front hall. She is a 
large woman, between forty and fifty, of abounding good- 
nature and a perennial gush of words. She wears her 
best suit, the one she keeps "for nice".] 

CYNTHIA 

There ! I bolted right in. Aaron Barstow, this 
ain't you? 

AARON 

Well, what d'ye think? 

CYNTHIA 

I see you drive by. Well, it's a kind of a sad home- 
comin', ain't it, your father passed away 'n' all. This 
your girl? 



CHILDREN OF EARTH j 

AARON 

Anita, this is Mis' Coleman, — Mis' Cynthy Cole- 
man. 

CYNTHIA 
[Shaking hands with Anita.] 
Favors your side, don't she ? She's the exact image 
o' Mary Ellen at her age. 

ANITA 

I'll call Aunt Mary Ellen. She's changing her 
dress. 

CYNTHIA 

Don't ye disturb her. I'm on my way home from 
the street, an' I stopped to put a question, that's all. 
What time's the exercises down to Mill Road Farm? 

AARON 

Exercises ? 

CYNTHIA 

Jane'll know. I see her through the kitchen winder. 

AARON 

Jane? Who's Jane? 

CYNTHIA 

Why, Jane Hale. Peter Hale's wife. 



8 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

AARON 

What's she in the kitchen for? I didn't see any- 
body come in. 

CYNTHIA 

Why, she's been comin', ofif an' on, ever since your 
father had his stroke. Lately she's stayed nights an' 
got breakfast. I dunno what Mary Ellen'd done with- 
out her an' Peter. 

AARON 

Peter Hale? So he's got back here. He was the 
wanderin' one, wa'n't he ? 

CYNTHIA 

Yes. 

AARON 

Where'd he pick this woman up? Round here? 

CYNTHIA 

Law, no. She's a Portugee. But she's mad as fire 
if anybody says she ain't straight Yankee. [Amused.] 
Calls herself Jane. 

ANITA 

Peter Hale? Is that Adam Hale's cousin? 

CYNTHIA 

Yes. It's down to his farm we're goin' to bless the 
trees. Mill Road Farm. 

AARON 

Blessin' the trees? What kind o' folderol is that? 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 



CYNTHIA 



Oh, you come along an' see. Peter Hale's been 
learnin' us the songs, 'n' we're goin' to all turn out. 
Many's there is left of us. Mary Ellen's bought up 
so much o' the farm land round here she's kinder 
crowded us off the edge, an' we're movin' into the 
village. I'm packing up an' I expect to be off next 
week. 

[She calls in a clarion voice directed to the kitchen.^ 

Jane! 

AARON 

Well, I s'pose 'twas to your advantage to sell, or ye 
wouldn't ha' sold. 

CYNTHIA 

Law! I'm goin' to be proper pleased to move into 
the street amongst folks. I guess 'twas so with the 
rest. We're all gittin' along in years an' the young 
folks are possessed to be off bein' chanfitrs or climb- 
in' electric poles. 

[She calls again.] 

Jane! [To Aaron.] Much as I can do to get any- 
body to help me pack up. 

[Jane Hale comes in from the kitchen. She is a thin, pale, 
haggard woman, in the forties, of a tempestuous type, 
subdued to the demands of everyday life. Her black 
eyes, often veiled, are, in spite of her, hot with the 
tropical fire she is able, for the most part, to keep 
out of her manner. Although she is capable of lithe 
action, her ordinary movements are dull and peasant- 
like.] 



10 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

JANE 

How de do, Mis' Coleman. 

CYNTHIA 

Make you acquainted with Mr. Aaron Barstow, 
from New York — Mary Ellen's brother. Miss Anita 
Barstow. 

ANITA 

{Coming forward with a pretty manner of being "nice" to 
JaneA 

Mrs. Coleman says you've been helping Aunt Mary 

Ellen, you and your husband. 

JANE 

Yes. I'm here more'n I am to home — now. He 
says she hadn't ought to be alone. 

CYNTHIA 

What time's the exercises down to the farm? 

JANE 

Four o'clock. 

CYNTHIA 

[Turning to go.] 
You come down, Aaron. Renew your youth. 

JANE 

Mis' Coleman, I've got a basket o' Mary Ellen's 
dishes she's goin' to lend us. Could you make room 
for it in the buggy? 



CHILDREN OF EARTH II 

CYNTHIA 

Certain I could. 

JANE 

Peter's goin' to call for it, but he'll have the colt 
an' I wouldn't resk it. 

[She goes out to the kitchen.] 

CYNTHIA 

Better by half come down, Aaron. We used to have 
proper good times down to Mill Road Farm. 

AARON 

Look here, Cynthy, I shall have to take that 6.20 
to-morrer mornin', for New York. You don't s'pose 
you could carry me to the depot, do ye ? 

CYNTHIA 

Why, yes. Some of us'll be glad to. 

AARON 

That depot man's slower'n stockstill. 

CYNTHIA 

Right on hand, ain't you, Aaron, same's you always 
was? 

AARON 

Well, ye've got to be if you're goin' to git any- 
wheres. 

[Jane comes in from the kitchen with a large basket of 
china.] 



12 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

CYNTHIA 

I'll help ye. Here, let me ketch hold. 

AARON 

I'd offer to take that for ye, but I dunno but you 
can manage it better by yourselves. 

[Cynthia and Jane carry out the china by the hall door.] 

[Aaron zvatches them out and then goes on with 
his "regulating".] I don't like the looks o' that Hale 
woman. 

ANITA 

So that's Peter Hale's wife. But she's been good to 
Aunt Mary Ellen. What's she so long about? 
[She goes to the bedroom door and knocks, calling.] 
Aunt Mary Ellen ! 

MARY ELLEN 
[Answerijig from her bedroom.] 
Was that Cynthy? She gone? 

ANITA 

Yes. 

MARY ELLEN 

I guess I was kinder 'fraid o' lettin' her see me in 
this dress. I don't hardly know's I want you to. 

[She comes in, shy and hardly hoping for approval. She is 
a woman of perhaps forty-six, of a delicate loveliness 
overlaid by a look of pathetic endurance. She has been 
as warmly in love with life as Anita is now, but has 



CHILDREN OP EARTH 13 

dumbly fought down in herself every emotion that rebels 
against the recognized system of things. She is dressed 
in a silk of an old-fashioned cut, exactly suited to her 
type of szveet appealing fiess.\ 

You see what you think. 

ANITA 

[Affectionately giving little caressing pats and rearranging 
touches to Mary Ellen's neckgear.] 

Now where did you ever come on a dress like this ? 

MARY ELLEN 

Up attic. 'Twas mother's. Ain't it suitable? 

ANITA 

Sweet. Only it makes me feel as if I'd stepped into 
Godey's "Lady's Book". Are there any more? 

MARY ELLEN 

Yes, one. Her weddin' dress. I never have wore 
'em. Father kep' me in dark clo'es, but I kinder felt 
as if I wanted somethin' light — this afternoon. 

[Jane comes in from the hall on her way to the kitchen.] 

JANE 
I've took the china. 

MARY ELLEN 

That's right. 

JANE 

I'll clear up before I go. 



14 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

MARY ELLEN 

No, no. You'll want to get home 'fore the folks 
come. 

JANE 

I've got plenty o' time. 

[She goes out to the kitchen.^ 

AARON 

What's all this about blessin' trees? 

MARY ELLEN 

It's an ancient custom come from England. Old 
Gran'ther Hale used to tell about it. Don't you re- 
member? An' now Peter's come back an' hired tlie 
farm, he's possessed to keep up the old ways. 

ANITA 
{With quick interest.^ 
Peter is the one Adam is so fond of ? 

AARON 

[Dryly.] 

Yes. An' that Jane there is Peter Hale's wife. 
Portugee! Anybody 't married into the family 'd be 
marryin' her, too. 

ANITA 

Adam couldn't help that. 



CHILDREN OF EARTH I5 

MARY ELLEN 

You think you could use any o' these? 
[She indicates the pile of clothes.] 

AARON 

No. Get rid of 'em. 

ANITA 

Let me. Haven't you an empty drawer? 
[She takes them and goes toward the bedroom door.] 

MARY ELLEN 

Don't put 'em in my room. 

ANITA 

Where shall I? 

MARY ELLEN 
[Indicating a little table.] 
Put 'em there an' we'll see. 

ANITA 

Are these all? 

MARY ELLEN 

There's another pile o' shirts in the bureau, in the 
room you're in. Bring 'em here an' I'll look 'em 
over. 

ANITA 
[Leaving the clothes on the little table.] 
No. I'll look them over up there. You don't need 
to see them. 

[She goes out to the front hall and upstairs.] 

[Mary Ellen sits at the large table and begins to sew on a 

shirt she has taken from her work basket.] 



l6 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

AARON 
[Rising and casually regarding her.] 

That his shirt ? 

MARY ELLEN 

Second-best. 

AARON 

What you doin' to it? 

MARY ELLEN 

Jest ketchin' it round the collar. 

AARON 

What for? 

MARY ELLEN 

Father never could stand a brack in his clo'es. I 
had to darn an' darn. 

AARON 

Well, he's done with 'em now. 

[He goes to the fireplace and begins examining things on the 
mantel.] 

MARY ELLEN 

I know it. But seems if I'd got to go on with it 
jest the same. Seems if, so long as they're here, he's 
here too. 

AARON 

He kep' a pretty tight hand on the rein, didn't he? 
To the last. 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 17 

MARY ELLEN 

There ! Le's not talk about it. 



AARON 

How soon can you get out o' here? 

MARY ELLEN 
[In alarm Ji 
Out o' this house? 

AARON 

Yes. You don't s'pose you're goin' to live on here 
alone, do ye ? 

MARY ELLEN 

[Evasively.^ 
For the present. 

AARON 

No. You're goin' with Nita an' me. 

MARY ELLEN 
[Defensively.^ 
Oh, no, Aaron, I ain't planned it that way. 

AARON 
[His eye is caught by the pewter on the shelf.] 
What you intend to do \yith this? 

MARY ELLEN 

Why, that's gran'mother's pewter. 



l8 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

AARON 

Well, you won't want to leave it behind ye. 

MARY ELLEN 

Aaron, I ain't goin' to New York. 

AARON 
[He begins to take the pewter down and set it on the table.] 
I'll reach it down an' by'n' by we'll pack it up. 

MARY ELLEN 

Aaron, I ain't goin' — 

AARON 

I should think you'd like to do somethin' for Nita. 
This last year she's needed somebody mighty bad. 
She told you about that affair o' hers? 

MARY ELLEN 
[Watching the pewter in distress.] 

No. 

[With a sudden rapt interest.] 
Has Nita fell in love? 

AARON 

, Thinks she has. 

MARY ELLEN 

Who is it? 



CHILDREN OF EARTH I9 

AARON 

Now I'll tell you who 'tis. It's one o' these same 
Hales that owned Mill Road Farm as long ago as you 
an' I can remember anything. 

MARY ELLEN 

Don't let Jane hear you. 

AARON 

If she's married one on 'em she knows 'em as well 
as I do. Worthless — 

MARY ELLEN 

You can't call 'em worthless. 

[She has followed every movement of his with the pewter in 
a nervous anxiety, and now, as if she couldn't possibly 
help it, takes a piece or two from the table, while he 
has turned to get another, and sets them back on the 
shelf again. As he takes down the pieces, she continues 
to set them back, though with no logical purpose, and he, 
absorbed in the Hales, doesn't find her out.] 

AARON 

No Hale ever made a dollar. If they come on one 
in the gutter they wouldn't ha' picked it up unless 
'twas shiny. Crazy — 

MARY ELLEN 

No, Aaron. They wa'n't crazy. 



20 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

AARON 

They were. 'Twas in the blood. There was old 
Gran'father Hale, old Apple Hale they called him. 
He was crazed about apples. Wherever he went he'd 
plant an apple seed. 

MARY ELLEN 
{Dreaviily.^ 
How good his clo'es al'ays smelt ! I used to admire 
to have him take me up. 

AARON 

Then there was another that thought he'd got a 
stoneless plum. By George ! 

MARY ELLEN 

'Twas pretty nigh that. Stone wa'n't no bigger'n 
a pea. 

AARON 

Well, that's all there was to it. He didn't know- 
enough to get it on the market. Then there's this 
Peter, this friend o' yourn. He's a chip o' the old 
block. 

MARY ELLEN 

Peter. 

AARON 

An' there's another — kind of a cousin o' his, next 
generation. 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 21 

MARY ELLEN 

Adam. 

AARON 

He's the one Nita's bewitched with. 

MARY ELLEN 

Ain't he a kind of a druggist? 

AARON 

Chemist. Agricultural chemistry. 

MARY ELLEN 

How'd he an' Nita get acquainted? 

AARON 

He come to me to git a job. Business. You 
wouldn't know if I told ye. Watch me givin' a Hale 
a job. 

MARY ELLEN 

So she's fell in love with Adam Hale. 

AARON 

Seems so. An' she can fall out ag'in. 

MARY ELLEN 

Aaron, you ain't come betwixt 'em? 

AARON 

Yes, I have. 



22 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

MARY ELLEN 

D'you find he was wild or suthin'? 

AARON 

No! no! He's a Hale, that's all. Do you know 
what Nita's comin' into if she outlives me? 

MARY ELLEN 

Why, I never thought, but I s'pose you're worth a 
good many hunderds o' dollars. 

AARON 
[Laughing dryly. ^ 
Hunderds! Yes, I guess I be. Now, look here. 
I've got to the place where I expect my money to do 
me some good an' do Nita good, too. She's pretty 
an' she's smart. She's fitted to marry amongst folks 
that wouldn't speak to you or me. Do you s'pose I'm 
goin' to see her tie herself to Adam Hale? No, by 
Godfrey ! 

MARY ELLEN 

Well, I'm terrible sorry she's had to give him up. 

AARON 

I ain't. I hate a Hale as I hate the devil. 

MARY ELLEN 

You used to go down to Mill Road Farm a good 
deal, years ago. 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 



AARON 



23 



Yes, I did. An' what did it amount to? We'd set 
round the kitchen an' tell stories. 

MARY ELLEN 

An' sing. 

AARON 

Yes. 'Twas when you were goin' with Nate Buell. 
Whatever come betwixt you an' Nate ? 

MARY ELLEN 

Father did. 

AARON 

Well, the Buells wa'n't much. There was a crowd 
of us. We set round the kitchen an' grinned at one 
another as if grinnin' was the end o' man. 

MARY ELLEN 

'Twas a proper nice place. There ain't been such 
times since. 

AARON 

D'you remember the night father come down an' 
ordered us home? 

MARY ELLEN 

I remember. 

AARON 

We slunk out o' that kitchen like two dogs comin' 
to heel. Nate Buell foUered us out. 



24 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

MARY ELLEN 

I know he did. 

AARON 

When father got us into the road he asked us if we 
thought we were growed up, singin' an' dancin' when 
there was corn to husk. Nate an' I were so mad we 
could ha' killed him. 

MARY ELLEN 

You were one on each side o' me an' Nate says to 
me, "Don't cry." 

AARON 

Next day Nate an' I got together an' we concluded 
father was right. 

MARY ELLEN 

Right ! 

AARON 

Yes. 'Twas time for us to buckle down. An' we 
never stepped inside the door o' Mill Road Farm 
ag'in. 

MARY ELLEN 
[Dreamily.] 
I dunno what't was about that place that made it so 
kinder homey an' pleasant. Mebbe 'twas because folks 
lived there that enjoyed themselves an' wanted other 
folks to. An' they were always tryin' to git some- 
thing out o' the earth, somethin' besides money. 

AARON 

Well, what's this Peter gittin' out of it? 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 25 

MARY ELLEN 

He's prunin' up the trees, an' settin' out new, an' 
tryin' to coax Jane back to health. 

AARON 

What's the matter of her? 

MARY ELLEN 

I dunno's I can say. 

AARON 

[He goes to the mantel, opens one of the little cupboards over 
itj tries the other and finds it locked.} 

What's in here? 

MARY ELLEN 
[Getting a key from a book on the secretary shelf.] 
Oh, that's father's medicines. 

AARON 

What you got 'em locked up for? 

MARY ELLEN 

I thought best. 

AARON 

Where's the key? 

[She gives it to him.] 
I might as well be goin' over things while I'm 
standin' round. 



26 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

MARY ELLEN 

When you git through you lock it up ag'in. 

AARON 
[Unlocking the door.] 
Why ? Wiiat ye got in there ? 

MARY ELLEN 

Brandy an' whisky. You sent him a bottle of each. 

AARON 

[He takes out two bottles, examines them and finds the seals 
unbroken.] 

Father never was no hand for liquor. I might as 
well take these back. 

MARY ELLEN 

Then you put 'em in your bag, last thing. Don t 
you leave 'em settin' round. 

AARON 

Why not? 

[He puts them back in the cupboard, locks the door and gives 
her the key.] 

MARY ELLEN 

I dunno's Fd ought to tell you. 

[Gravely and cautiously.] 
It's Jane. 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 2J 

AARON 

Jane ? Out there in the kitchen ? 

MARY ELLEN 

Jane Hale, Peter's wife. She's had a bad habit. 

AARON 

Drink? She! A man's a fool to marry a woman 
with that kind of a look, anyways. Gypsy trollope! 

MARY ELLEN 

Well, I s'pose some men'd marry a woman to take 
care of her. 

AARON 

I s'pose a Hale might. D'he tell you so? 

MARY ELLEN 

Peter? No. He ain't that kind. Only sometimes 
seems if he an' Jane — well, you can't think of 'em as 
married folks. 

AARON 

You turn her out. I don't want a drinkin' woman 
round here. She might set the house afire. 

MARY ELLEN 

Oh, she ain't touched a drop for over a year. She's 
been terrible good. I dunno what I should ha' done 
if it hadn't been for her an' Peter. 



28 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

AARON 

I told you to keep a girl. 

MARY ELLEN 

Father wouldn't hear to it. He said mother always 
done her work, an' I'd got to do the same. 

AARON 

Well, you wa'n't doin' it if this Hale woman was 
round every day. 

MARY ELLEN 

He never seemed to mind her. She an' Peter've 
been back an' forth till you'd think they'd got all 
wore out. An' over a month now Jane's stayed with 
me nights. I s'pose father thought seein' they were 
neighbors they wouldn't ask him nothin'. 

AARON 

I guess there's no danger of a Hale bringin' in a 
bill. The Hales always did manage to turn their 
neighbors' grindstones faster'n their own. 

MARY ELLEN 

Peter used to come in an' help move father in the 
bed. He'd even see to the kindlin', an' come over 
Mondays to empt' my tubs. I don't s'pose he an' 
Jane'd take any pay, but I thought mebbe you'd make 
her a handsome present. 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 29 

AARON 

Well! Well! We'll see. 

MARY ELLEN 

Aaron. 

AARON 

Well. 

MARY ELLEN 

About Adam an' Nita. If anything happened to 
you an' me, I should think you'd like to feel you wa'n't 
leavin' Nita alone. 

AARON 

I'd as soon leave her alone as leave her with a 
Hale. Why, there wa'n't a family in this town that 
lived so nigh the wind. 

MARY ELLEN 

They wa'n't any poorer'n we were. 

AARON 

How long d'we stay poor? I was twenty-one when 
I went away an' got into rubber. An' I was twenty- 
six when I bought this house an' I put you an' father 
into it. An' if you've lacked for anything since, 
'tain't my fault. 

MARY ELLEN 

Well, it all come through father, an' you know how 
it hurt him to take out his wallet. 



30 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

AARON 

Father was an old-fashioned man, used to old- 
fashioned ways. You ain't laid that up ag'inst him ? 

MARY ELLEN 
[With sudden passion.^ 
No, I ain't laid it up. I ain't laid it up. 

AARON 

Now what you want to cry for? You didn't expect 
him to live, helpless as he was. What you takin' it 
so hard for? 

MARY ELLEN 

It ain't his death I'm takin' hard. It's because I 
can't mourn, Aaron. I can't mourn. 

AARON 

There ! There ! 

[Glancing from the window.^ 
Who's that? 

MARY ELLEN 

Who's it look like ? 

AARON 

Well, if that ain't old Eph Grout I'll miss my guess. 
An' he's got on the same overalls he wore when I 
was a boy. An' he's hoppin' along jest the same gait. 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 3 1 

MARY ELLEN 

Call him over. He al'ays likes a bite o' sweet trade. 
He'll come quick enough. 

{She goes to the sideboard, takes out a crock from below and 
puts cookies on a plate. Aaron opens the window and 
calls. \ 

AARON 

Hey, Uncle Eph! Come over here! {To Mary 
Bllen.] He must be a htmderd an' ten. We boys 
used to foller him an' dare one another to ask him 
how he got cracked. Love-cracked, we used to say. 
Love-cracked ! 

[Mary Ellen opens wide the door into the hall and Eph Grout 
warily appears. He is an old man with thin shaggy beard 
and gray hair, and shrewd but wandering glance. His 
movements are quick and jumpy, as if there were ill 
regulated springs in his legs. He wears overalls much 
too large for him, and covered with overlapping patches, 
the resulting .surface so worn and grimed as to look like 
earth and lichen and dead leaves. Mary Ellen, with little 
inviting words, offers him the cookies, holding the plate 
low, as one might reassure a timid animal. He ventures 
a nervous hand toward the plate, but by the time he has 
touched a cooky and been allowed to take it, he gathers 
confidence and takes them, one after another, his look of 
adoration for her, as he interrogates her face, deepening 
with every one.] 

EPH 

One — two — three — four — five — 

AARON 
[Making a sudden movement behind him.] 
Boo! 

[Eph jumps in alarm, and whirls about to face him.] 



32 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

Look here, Uncle Eph. Look here. D'ye ever see 
me before ? 

EPH 

[Recovering his coniidence at a pat and smile from Mary 
Ellen and questioning the empty plate.] 
Six? 

MARY ELLEN 

Not to-day, Uncle Eph. You slip down to Mill 
Road Farm, about four o'clock, an' you'll git some 
sweet trade there, 

EPH 

[At once reassured and hopeful] 
An' lemonade — an' lemonade — 

[He skips out at the hall door.] 

AARON 

Godfrey Dominy ! What's the use o' sich a creatur' 
as that cumberin' the ground? 

[He produces a map from his pocket and spreads it on the 
table.] 

Look here, Mary Ellen. Here's where we are now. 
You've picked up most o' the land, ain't ye? Five 
farms an' four wood lots. 



MARY ELLEN 

[Going to him.] 
What's that? 

AARON 

As you pulled in one farm after another, I had this 
colored accordin' to the deeds. 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 33 

MARY ELLEN 

What is it here where the white runs int' the red? 

AARON 

That's Mill Road Farm. 

MARY ELLEN 

So 'tis. 

AARON 

It ought to be an unbroken sweep o' land from 
Bald Mountain to Sunset Pond. But now it's like a 
cake that's bit into. Why ain't you picked up Mill 
Road Farm? 

MARY ELLEN 

I couldn't. 

AARON 

What you done towards it ? 

MARY ELLEN 

Nothin'. 

AARON 

Why not? 

MARY ELLEN 

Why, Nathan Buell owns it. 'Twas mortgaged, you 
remember, an' come into his hands. An' I ain't seen 
him for twenty-six years this April. 

AAPON 

You could ha' written to him, couldn't ye? 



34 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

MARY ELLEN 

I didn't feel to — about that. 

AARON 

Didn't you understand what I wanted? I told you 
to have the deeds made out in your name. An' I 
furnished the money. 

MARY ELLEN 

Well, there 'tis, acre upon acre. 

AARON 

All but Mill Road Farm. 

MARY ELLEN 

I can't meddle with Mill Road Farm. 

AARON 

Why not? 

MARY ELLEN 

Because Peter Hale's set his heart on buyin' it for 
himself. 

AARON 
[Keenly.] 
Think he's got an option on it? 

MARY ELLEN 

An option, brother? What's that? 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 35 

AARON 

Nate Buell agree to sell? 

MARY ELLEN 

Yes. 

AARON 

You've let Peter Hale come in an' sneak it away 
under your nose, an' you wouldn't write to Buell? 

MARY ELLEN 

I have wrote. 

AARON 

What'd he say? 

MARY ELLEN 

I didn't write about the farm. 

AARON 

What'd you write for? 

MARY ELLEN 

I told him father'd passed away. 

AARON 

What'd he care about father? 

MARY ELLEN 

Be that as it may, I couldn't ask him to sell me the 
farm over Peter Hale's head. 



36 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

AARON 

One farm's like another to Peter Hale. 

MARY ELLEN 

Oh, no, it ain't, Aaron. Peter's bewitched with his 
trees. An' he's graftin' 'em an' sprayin' 'em an' 
scrapin' out the rot, an' you never see a happier man 
nor a contenteder. 

AARON 

You write to Nate Buell within an hour an' tell 
him you'll give him a third more'n he can git from 
Peter Hale. 

MARY ELLEN 

Aaron, we've got land enough. That's what the 
neighbors say to me. "What you buy in' up so much 
land for?" they say. An' if I hadn't give you my 
word I wouldn't, I'd told 'em what you wrote. I'd 
said, "Because I've got a good brother, an' he's puttin' 
hunderds o' dollars into real estate for me, so's I 
sha'n't come to want." 

AARON 

You ain't repeated that to nobody? 

MARY ELLEN 

No. But I'd like to. I'd like to tell 'em my brother 
Aaron's lookin' out for my old age. 

AARON 

Your old age'll be all right. There ain't any papers 
passed betwixt Hale an' Buell, has there? 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 37 



MARY ELLEN 

For the farm? 

AARON 

Buell ain't agreed to sell, nor Hale ain't paid down 
anything to bind the bargain? 

MARY ELLEN 

I dunno. 

AARON 

Then you write to Buell. 

MARY ELLEN 

He ain't in Toledo now, 

AARON 

Where is he? 

MARY ELLEN 

He's comin' here. 



AARON 

Comin' east? 

MARY ELLEN 

Yes. Soon's he got my letter sayin' father'd passed 
away, he sent me a dispatch. 

[She takes a telegram from her pocket, opens it and looks 
at it in almost terrified delight.] 

It says, "Comin'. Arrive the fifth." Reads as if he 
wrote it in a hurry. Never stopped to git the worth of 
his ten words. 



38 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

AARON 

The fifth? Why, that's to-day. 

MARY ELLEN 

Yes, to-night. The last train 'twould have to be. 

AARON 

[In sudden discovery.] 

You been puttin' that pewter back on the shelves ? 

MARY ELLEN 

Yes, I have, but I'll take it down ag'in. You can 
pack it up an' carry it ofif. 

AARON 

It'll be yours jest the same. I only want you to 
clear out everything of any value, so's I can let or sell. 

MARY ELLEN 

[She takes down the pewter and sets it on the table.] 
You shall have the pewter. But you mustn't think 
I'm goin' back with you. It ain't that I wouldn't do 
anything in the world for Nita or you either. But I 
can't. I ain't free. 

AARON 

Why ain't ye? 

MARY ELLEN 

Aaron, that's what I've been tryin' to tell you. Oh, 
I can't — here's Nita. 

[Nita comes in at the hall door.] 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 39 

ANITA 

Why, there's your pewter. Then you are going back 
with us. You dear! 

MARY ELLEN 

No, no ! I ain't goin', Aaron. 

[Wildly.] 
Don't you try to make me give way. I give way 
years ago, an' if I do it ag"in it'll kill me. 

AARON 

There, there! You'll feel different in the mornin'. 
You be ready to take the 6.20. Guess I'll go out an' 
poke 'round a spell. 

{He goes out by the hall door into the yard.] 

ANITA 

I wish he wouldn't hurry so. Why can't he take 
the day off? 

MARY ELLEN 

Business, I s'pose. [With a little wistful humor.] 
We shouldn't know if he told us. 

ANITA 

What were you two talking about? 

MARY ELLEN 

For one thing, your father spoke to mc about you 
an' Adam Hale. 



40 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

ANITA 

Now what's father told you? 

MARY ELLEN 

He's terrible set ag'inst the Hales. 

ANITA 

Poor people, weren't they? 

MARY ELLEN 

Middlin'. 

ANITA 

He hates to remember how he began. He hates the 
people that remember it, 

MARY ELLEN 

Don't seem as if he need to feel that way. 

ANITA 

He does. For the last year, since he's thought of 
retiring, he's simply advertised himself down here — 
library — iron fence round the graveyard — 

MARY ELLEN 

Now what's that for? He ain't comin' here to 
live? 

ANITA 

No, no. . But he's begun to see he hasn't really made 
good, even if he is a rubber king. 



1 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 41 

MARY ELLEN 

Your father's a terrible smart man. 

[Distressed at the empty shelf where the pewter used to live 
she begins taking things from the mantel and putting 
them on the shelf.] 

If anybody's made as much of a place for himself 
as your father has — 

ANITA 

Ah, but the only place he's made is in rubber. I've 
no place either. 

MARY ELLEN 

Why, Nita, you must have made friends. 

ANITA 

I haven't been willing to run with people that 
wouldn't stand for father. And they can't. If he 
ever had a spark of interest in anything but money, 
he stamped it out years ago. 

MARY ELLEN 
[With a sad little smile.} 

When father ordered him home from Mill Road 
Farm. 

ANITA 

When was that? 

MARY ELLEN 

Oh, never mind, dear. I was only goin' back to 
old times. 



42 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

ANITA 

Father and I are in the same box. He'd like to 
distinguish himself now when it's too late. I'd like to 
have him. 

MARY ELLEN 

Nita, I never heard a girl speak so about her father. 

ANITA 

Oh, I know father. You can't live with a person 
twenty years and not know him. Didn't you know 
grandfather ? 

MARY ELLEN 

Oh! 

ANITA 

Why don't you face things? Face grandfather's 
memory. You see the mistake was not having the 
sand to face grandfather himself. 

MARY ELLEN 

I wa'n't brought up that way. But, Nita, I want 
to say this. It was what I was tryin' to tell your 
father. I'm goin' to have a home o' my own. 

ANITA 

Aunt Mary Ellen! 

MARY ELLEN 

An' however things are betwixt you an' your father, 
you'll be dearly welcome to it. 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 43 

ANITA 

Why, you're coming with us. 

-lARY ELLEN 

No, Nita. I'm goin' to be married. 

ANITA 

Married ! 

MARY ELLEN 

I guess that's what your father 'd say — jest that 
same way. Well, I s'pose 'tis funny, a woman o' my 
years. 

ANITA 

Who is he? 

MARY ELLEN 

Nathan Buell. 

ANITA 

Does father know him? 

MARY ELLEN 

He used to. 

ANITA 

And you've told father? 

MARY ELLEN 

No, but I've got to. There's jest one thing that 
gives me courage — ^your father havin' me buy up all 
this land round here. I say to myself, "He's doin' 
everything he can to provide for me, an' if I want 



44 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

to change my state he'll stan' by me in that." 'Twas 
buyin' the land that led me to hear from Nathan 
Buell. I had to send to him about a right o' way. 
An' Nathan wrote back an' he says, "Can't you con- 
clude to marry me?" 

ANITA 

What did you say? 

MARY ELLEN 

I showed the letter to father, an' he put it into an 
envelope an' sent it back without a word. 

ANITA 

So you didn't answer? 

MARY ELLEN 

Not till Nathan wrote ag'in. 

ANITA 

Did you show grandfather that? 

MARY ELLEN 

No. I thought best not. I wrote Nathan, "I can't 
leave father." But when father was gone, I wrote 
ag'in. See here. 

[She shows Anita the telegram.] 
ANITA 

The fifth. Why he might be here now. 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 45 

MARY ELLEN 

It'll be the last train. 

[She draws out a ring hung hy a chain about her neck.] 
Here's the ring he give me twenty-seven years ago 
this month. 

ANITA 

So he's coming. Are you glad? 

MARY ELLEN 

Sometimes when I think o' seein' him ag'in, seems 
if I couldn't live. All them times come back, spring 
with the laylocks in bloom, fall with the leaves a-turn- 
in' an the smell o' grapes. 

ANITA 

But he'll be changed. 

MARY ELLEN 

So I tell myself. I'm changed. So'll he be. But 
if he can bear the sight o' me I can — crave the sight o' 
him. 

ANITA 

Why, he'd be as old as father. 

MARY ELLEN 

Pretty near. 

ANITA 

Suppose he turned out just like father. 



46 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

MARY ELLEN 

He wa'n't like your father, Nita. 

ANITA 

He never — married? 

MARY ELLEN 

He did marry. His wife died. 

ANITA 

You don't — feel any different — for that? 

MARY ELLEN 

I've thought it all out an' I couldn't blame him. He 
had to have a home, didn't he? 

ANITA 

I'm afraid you're going to be disappointed. 

MARY ELLEN 

Well, what if I be? Is he the same man he would 
ha' been if I'd married him? No, of course he ain't. 
An' that's what I've got to remember, every instant o' 
my life. But I don't want you to travel the road I've 
traveled. I don't want you to give up your youth. 
It's like killin' somethin' that won't come alive. 

ANITA 

But it's come alive in you. 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 



MARY ELLEN 



47 



I've kep' it alive, I've fanned it when 'twas dyin', 
an' poured my blood into it till it seems if sometimes 
I hadn't enough left to keep my heart a-goin'. 
[Exultantly.] 

But I have. My heart's kep' right on, an' I shall 
have my life yet. I want you to have your life, too. 

ANITA 

I shall have my life. If I don't have it with a man 
I shall have it by myself. 

MARY ELLEN 

You can't, Nita, you can't. Men an' women were 
made to live together, an' they ain't much of anything 
alone. 

ANITA 

You've learned to live alone. But now you're plan- 
ning to live with a perfectly strange man. Yoti're 
the most daring woman I ever saw. 

MARY ELLEN 

You've got to be darin' in them things. Ain't 
mothers darin' when they bring their children into the 
world? If ye don't take no risk, where be ye? 

ANITA 

Suppose it goes wrong? 



48 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

MARY ELLEN 

Goes wrong! 

[Scornfully.] 
Your father said you were in love. I don't believe 
it. You wouldn't think it could go wrong. 

ANITA 

I don't know Adam Hale yet. 

MARY ELLEN 

Don't your heart tell ye? 

ANITA 

I know what my heart tells me. But my head tells 
me he's young, he's handsome. That's nature's game. 

MARY ELLEN 

No, you don't love him. 

ANITA 

Oh, I've got as drunk as you have. 

MARY ELLEN 

Anita ! 

ANITA 

On love music in operas, and things like that. 
But I wouldn't marry even Adam Hale if he didn't 
make good. And father's pretty well convinced me 
he won't. 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 49 

MARY ELLEN 

Well, ain't you goin' to help him? 

ANITA 

Aunt Mary Ellen, do you know what it is to be 
ashamed? To be thrown with people who've got 
things to be proud of and know you've nothing your- 
self? A man must bring me what I haven't got — 
and can't get without him. 

MARY ELLEN 

Nita, you look at me. My life's been as bare as 
your hand, an' if I had it to live over ag'in I'd stan' 
up an' look father in the face — No, I couldn't. I 
couldn't. I was a little young thing, same's you 
be now. But you see where I be to-day, an' don't you 
give up the man you love because he's poor, nor be- 
cause he conies of plain folks, nor because your father 
tells you to. If Adam ain't got much to bring you — 
why, you make it up to him. No, you don't love him. 

ANITA 

Maybe not. 

MARY ELLEN 
{Watching the eifect of her words.] 
Nita, d'you know Adam's here? 

ANITA 

[Startled.] 
Here? 



50 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

MARY ELLEN 

Down to Mill Road Farm. 

ANITA 

What's he doing? 

MARY ELLEN 

He's goin' to live with Peter. They'll carry on the 
land. 

ANITA 

[hicredulously.] 
Down here? 

MARY ELLEN 

Within ten minutes' walk. 

ANITA 
[In a burst of delight.] 

I might have known. That's why I'm so happy 
here. I haven't been so happy — O Aunt Mary Ellen ! 
[She runs into Mary Ellen's arms.] 

MARY ELLEN 
[ Triumphantly.] 
You do like him. I guess you like him enough. 
There's Peter Hale drivin' up. 

[Humorously alive to her wet eyes.] 
I guess I need the roller towel. 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 51" 



Peter Hale? 



ANITA 



MARY ELLEN 



Adam's cousin. I guess you'd jest as soon talk to 
him for a minute. 

[She goes out into the kitchen.^ 
[Am*a opens the door for Peter Hale, who enters carrying 
a birch log and a big bunch of apple blossoms. He is a 
lithe, quick-moving man of forty-nine or fifty-one or two, 
with a clean-shaven face, eloquent eyes, brilliant smile 
and great charm of ingenuous manner.] 

ANITA 

Mr. Hale ? I'm Anita Barstow. 

PETER 

Oh! 

[He gives her a spray of apple blossoms.] 
D'ye ever see anything prettier 'n that? 

ANITA 

Lovely! Aunt Mary Ellen will be right back, but 
before she comes I want to tell you I know how 
awfully good you've been to her. 

PETER 

Anybody'd be good to her. 

[He leaves the log by the hearth, takes the flowers from the 
vase on the little table, drops them in the waste basket 
and puts his apple blossoms in the vase.] 



52 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

ANITA 

Mr. Hale. 

PETER 

Yes. 

ANITA 

You going home from here? 

PETER 

Yes. 

ANITA 

Couldn't you take these? 

[She indicates the pile of clothing.'] 

PETER 
Why, them ain't the old gentleman's clo'es? 

ANITA 

Yes. 

PETER 
[With involuntary distaste.] 
I don't believe I've got any use for 'em. 

ANITA 

Burn them. They make her nervous. I believe they 
frighten her. 

PETER 

I should think they would. Yes. We're goin' to 
burn a brush heap this afternoon. Part o' the exer- 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 



53 



cises. I'll lay 'em in under the edge, an' they shall 

return to the earth as they was. 

[He steps into the hall, leaves them there and comes back.] 

ANITA 

You're awfully kind. Could we — 

PETER 

What? 

ANITA 

Could we do anything — in return? 

PETER 

No. I've no bill ag'inst ye. 

ANITA 

Please! Let father buy you something — a plough 
or a mowing machine. 

PETER 

Or a harrer? There's one thing he can do. See 't 
the harrer's lifted off Mary Ellen. 

ANITA 

Off Aunt Mary Ellen? 

PETER 

Don't ye know the sayin' — toad under a harrer? 
That's Mary Ellen. Time an' ag'in I've thought I'd 
got her out an' set her in the shade. By thunder! 
She hops right back into the furrer. 



54 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 



ANITA 

She sha'n't get into the furrow again. She's going 
to live with us. 

PETER 

[Startled.] 
Mary Ellen ? 

ANITA 

Yes. With father and me. 

PETER 

Mary Ellen'll be missed, 

ANITA 

Oh, I can fancy the whole town missing her. 

PETER 

I wa'n't thinkin' about the town. I was thinkin' of 
the robins — they won't sing so loud — an' the apple 
trees — they won't bloom so pink. 

ANITA 

Why, Mr. Hale, you're a poet. 

PETER 

She's comin'. I know her step. 

[Anita, with a nod and one of her best smiles at him, goes 

out by the hall door, upstairs.] 
[Mary Ellen comes in from the kitchen, bringing a medium- 
sized basket for the pewter.] 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 55 

MARY ELLEN 

Hullo, Peter. 

PETER 
[Giving her an apple spray.] 
Off "Hale's Favorite". That's the one we're goin' 
to bless last. So that's Anita Barstow. 

MARY ELLEN 

[Admiring the spray and putting it with the lilacs on the 
mantel.] 

D'you know there was anything between her an' 
Adam ? 

PETER 

Yes. That's what I've come to tell you. Adam see 
her drive by. Went wild. He's a still kind of a chap. 
Never'd opened his head if he hadn't seen her like 
that, all of a sudden. But I thought if she took a 
notion to come down to the farm this afternoon — 
well, he's there an' she ought to be prepared. 

MARY ELLEN 

You think he's a good stiddy feller, don't you, 
Peter? 

PETER 

I know he is. Got more ballast'n — some of us Hales. 

MARY ELLEN 

I hope Nita ain't goin' to be called on to — give him 
up for good. 



56 CHILDREN OF EARTH 



PETER 



So do I. Well, he's down there. You keep her 
away if you think best. [Noticing the pewter on the 
table.] What's this? 



MARY ELLEN 

I've give the pewter to Aaron to take back with 
him. 

PETER 

Why, it's your pewter. Your mother left it to you. 

MARY ELLEN 

That don't make any odds. 

PETER 

Does, too. I'm goin' to set it right back where it 
belongs. By George! 

MARY ELLEN 

No, no! Nita'll have it in the end. She might as 
well have it now. 

[She begins wrapping it in the pieces of cloth she has brought 
in the basket.] 

PETER 

Give it here. I'll do it, if it's got to go. 

[He begins to wrap the pewter and put it in the basket.] 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 57 

MARY ELLEN 

I 'most hope Nita'll go down there. I hope Adam'U 
see her. 

PETER 

He's pretty sore. 

MARY ELLEN 

Thinks she ain't treated him right? 

PETER 

I dunno. 

MARY ELLEN 

I want to Stan' by Nita. 'Twon't do no good. But 
it'll be somethin' for her to know there's somebody 
standin' by. 

PETER 

What makes you say 'twon't do no good ? 

MARY ELLEN 

Aaron's ag'inst it. 

PETER 

S'pose he is. 

MARY ELLEN 

Aaron's jest like father. What he wants he's goin' 
to have. 

PETER 

You couldn't stand up to your father, could you, 
Mary Ellen ? Years ago, I mean. 



58 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

MARY ELLEN 

Who told you that? 

PETER 

I hadn't lived here a month 'fore Cynthy Coleman 
says to me : "Now there's Mary Ellen Barstow. She 
ain't had any more life of her own than if she never'd 
been born into the world. Her father broke up her 
marryin' Nate Buell, an' she never'd look at anybody 
else." 

MARY ELLEN 

You can't look at anybody else. 

PETER 

Somebody'd ought to made ye. Got right in be- 
twixt ye an' the light that dazzled ye an' said, "Here 
I be." 

{Involuntarily he straightens himself and looks at her com- 
tnandingly.] 

MARY ELLEN 

[Passionately.] 
Don't you see, Peter? That's why I don't want 
Nita's youth to go by as mine has gone. You can't 
set back the clock. 

PETER 
[Taking out his watch.] 
Can't ye ? Why, you're fast. Look-a-here. 

[He sets back the clock hand.] 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 59 

MARY ELLEN 
[In alarm.] 
Oh, father never wanted anybody to meddle with 
the hands. 

PETER 

Didn't he? 

MARY ELLEN 

He said 'twas bad for the works. 

PETER 

Look-a-here, Mary Ellen, wouldn't you ruther wear 
out the sooner if you knew you're goin' with the sun ? 

MARY ELLEN 

[Raptly.] 
Goin' with the sun! 

PETER 

I never see Nate Buell, but I bet ye he's a sharp 
hand at a trade. 

MARY ELLEN 

Sellin' you the farm? 

PETER 

Yes. He give me to understand he'd sell it, but 't 
was in such a way as to ketch me an' not bind him. 

MARY ELLEN 

Then he never meant it. Nathan Buell's a very re- 
ligious man. 



6o CHILDREN OF EARTH 

PETER 

How'd you know that? 

MARY ELLEN 

He wrote me he'd give all he had to the Lord. 

PETER 

Wish I'd made my hargain through the Lord. 
When I asked for an option Buell wrote back, "I'll 
take"— 

MARY ELLEN 
[Quickly.} 

No, don't you tell me. I don't want to know what 
he'll take. [ In a voice unconsciously moved and 
softened.] He's comin' here. 

PETER 

Comin' here? What for? 

MARY ELLEN 

I can't tell you, Peter. Not — now. 

PETER 

He ain't comin' here after you? 

MARY ELLEN 

Peter — s'pos'n' he was? 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 6l 

PETER 

I won't have it. 

MARY ELLEN 

I s'pose you'd say I'm too old to think o' such things 
any more. 

[Jam comes into the pantry and stands, silent, by the open 
door.] 

PETER 

Old? You?— But— Nate Buelll Oh, I won't have 
it, Mary Ellen. I tell you I won't have it. 

JANE 
[Coming in from the pantry and speaking sharply.] 
Mary Ellen ! See 'f you think the bread's done. 
I'm tired o' watchin' it. 

MARY ELLEN 
[Startled.] 
Oh, I forgot. 

[She goes out to the kitchen.] 

PETER 
[To Jane.] 
What d' you speak hke that for? 

JANE 

To git her out o' the room. To stop your mouth. 
Don't you want her to git married? 
[Peter is silent.] 
Ain't she goin' to git married? 



62 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

PETER 

How should I know? 

JANE 

She goin' away to live? 

PETER 

I dunno, I tell ye. 

JANE 

If she goes away, you won't work an' slave for her 
any more. 

PETER 
[Out of his musing.} 
I ain't done anything — to speak of. 

JANE 

An' I sha'n't work — to make things easy for her. 

PETER 

Ain't you wanted to help Mary Ellen? 

JANE 

What do you care whether I wanted to or not? 
Anyways, we sha'n't do it no more, either of us. 

PETER 

[Hearing Mary Ellen's step.] 

Stop right there. 

[Mary Ellen comes in. She looks from one to the other in 
concern.] 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 63 

PETER 

{To lane.] 
Well, we might as well be goin'. You ready? 

JANE 

I ain't goin'. 

MARY ELLEN 

Why, Jane, why not? 

JANE 

I've got everything ready down there. The table's 
set an' the lemonade's coolin'. But I ain't goin' to 
dance an' sing with folks laughin' behind my back an' 
whisperin', "Look at Peter Hale's wife — Portugee!" 

[To Peter.] 
An' they'll laugh behind your back, too, because 
you married me. 

MARY ELLEN 

No, Jane. They wouldn't. They're nice folks. 

JANE 
[Sullenly.] 
I s'pose I've got to go. I don't want to ride. I'll 
go by the short cut. I'll be back in the mornin' an' 
git breakfast. 

[She goes out at the hall door.] 

MARY ELLEN 

You don't s'pose she feels a cravin' ? 



64 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

PETER 

No. 

MARY ELLEN 

She ain't touched a drop for over a year now. Some- 
times 't seems too good to be true. But to-day, it's 
as if she thought somethin' was goin' to happen. She 
can't foretell, Peter? Course she can't! 

PETER 

Uneasy, that's all. It's her foreign blood, I s'pose. 

MARY ELLEN 

It's been a kind of a hard day, gittin' ready for 
the folks down there. An' comin' on top of all she's 
done for me these last months. Why, Peter, think 
how you've both run back an' forth all through fath- 
er's sickness, an' how she's stayed nights with me 
since I've been alone. 

PETER 

I never thought Jane done more'n she wanted to. 

MARY ELLEN 

No. She's been the best neighbor anybody ever 
had. So've you, Peter. 

[Aaron comes in at the hall door.] 

MARY ELLEN 

Mr. Hale, brother. 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 65 

AARON 

{With a grudging nod.] 
Oh! Livin' down to the farm? 

PETER 

Mill Road Farm. 

AARON 

What set you out to come back here an' settle 
down ? 

PETER 

Well, 't was the trees. 

AARON 

Trees ? 

PETER 

There's always been somethin' terrible precious to 
me about New England apples. 

AARON 

I shouldn't want to put labor into a farm 't wa'n't 
my own. 

PETER 

I'm goin' to buy Mill Road Farm. You know what 
my folks were, 

AARON 

Yes. I know 'em. Egg an' bird. 

PETER 

They were brainy folks — 



66 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

AARON 

[Amazed.] 
Hey? 

PETER 

But they never got anywheres. Always aimin' at 
the stars an' stubbin' their toes while they looked. 
Now I feel as if I owed somethin' to them. I want 
folks when they ride by to p'int out Mill Road Farm 
an' say, "That's the old Hale place. A Hale owns it 
now. There ain't a better farm in the state." Why, 
I should feel as if all the dead an' gone Hales would 
rise up in bloom time in a kind o' pink an' white pro- 
cession an' say, "Go ahead. We sowed an' you may 
reap." 

AARON 

Why don't ye buy land that's got some peth left 
in it? 

PETER 

That ain't the kind o' land I want. I want to take 
some perishin' thing that ain't but jest got the breath 
o' life an' breathe in new. I'd ruther prune an old 
apple tree than set out a dozen seedlin's. 

AARON 

[Carelessly.] 
Ain't bought the farm yet? 

PETER 

It amounts to that. I've got the option. 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 67 

AARON 

What's Buell asked ye? 

PETER 

Twelve hundred. 

ANITA 
[Running in from the hallj calling.} 
Aunt Mary Ellen ! Aunt Mary Ellen ! 

AARON 

What's the matter? 

ANITA 

Somebody's come, 

AARON 
[Looking from the window.] 
Some kind of a peddler. Bag in his hand. 

ANITA 

Aunt Mary Ellen, don't you know? 

MARY ELLEN 

[Wondering.] 
Why, no. 

ANITA 

Think! Think! 

[To Aaron, who is about to open the door.] 

Don't ! Let her open the door. 

[5"^^ takes the spray of apple blossoms from her dress and 
tucks it in Aunt Mary Ellen's.] 

Now open the door. 



68 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

MARY ELLEN 

Why, I dunno who 't is. 

[It comes to her, and with a cry she buries her face in her 
hands.] 

Oh, I can't ! I can't ! 

[Anita opens the door.] 
[Nathan Buell conies in. He is a thin, dried man, something 
over afty, keen, nosing, Pharisaical, always looking out 
for the main chance and so eager for it that he can ill 
conceal his purpose.] 

NATHAN 
[Speaking to Attita, whom he sees first.] 
Mary Ellen! 

ANITA 
[Calling gently.] 
Aunt Mary Ellen ! 

NATHAN 
[Still to Anita.] 
You ain't changed a hair. You dress gayer 'n you 
used to. , 

[She shakes her head at him. He stares at her doubtfully.] 
It is Mary Ellen, ain't it? 



Aunt Mary Ellen! 



ANITA 
[Softly.] 



MARY ELLEN 
[Advancing slowly.] 
You ain't Nathan Buell ? 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 69 

NATHAN 

[Now he sees her, comes toward her, and they face each 
other. '^ 

You ain't Mary Ellen Barstow? 

MARY ELLEN 

They tell me Nita does favor me some as I was. 

NATHAN 

« 

[Tritely. } 
A good many seasons have rolled by. 

ANITA 
[Signiiicantly.\ 

Father, Mr.^ Hale is going, 

AARON 

How are ye, Nate ? Number o' years sence we went 
barefoot together. 

NATHAN 

That you, Aaron ? I guess we've all changed some. 
[Nathan and Aaron shake hands in a perfunctory way.'] 
But the Lord's looked out for me. I don't feel my 
age. 

ANITA 

Father ! Come ! 

NATHAN 
[Glancing at Peter.] 
This one o' the old neighbors? I don't seem to 
recollect — 



70 .CHILDREN OF EARTH 

AARON 

Peter Hale. 

[He goes out at the hall door.] 

NATHAN 
[To Peter.] 
Oh, you're that wanderin' Hale. 

PETER 

Well, I ain't wanderin' now. I'm livin' on your 
farm. When can I have a talk with you? 

NATHAN 

Oh, I s'pose you're all for whippin' up a trade. 
Well, I might as well tell ye I ain't in any hurry to 
sell. 

PETER 

You remember I asked for an option. 

ANITA 

[Insistently.] 
Come, Mr. Hale. 

PETER 

Yes. They're waitin' for me down there. Good- 
bye, Mary Ellen. 

[He goes out, and Anita, with a sad look at Mary Ellen, goes 
with him.] 

NATHAN 

Well, Mary Ellen, ye got my telegram, didn't ye? 



CHILDREN OF EARTH ji 

MARY ELLEN 

Yes. 

NATHAN 

So you expected me. 

MARY ELLEN 

I dunno what I expected. 

NATHAN 

Kind of upset ye, ain't it? Want I should git ye a 
tumbler of water ? 

MARY ELLEN 

No. \In a dazed way trying to account for her be- 
wilderment.^ I didn't think you'd come till seven. 

NATHAN 

Found I could save three hours by gittin' out at 
the junction. An' look here, I sent the team back. 
That's all right, wa'n't it? 

MARY ELLEN 

The team ? 

NATHAN 

Hired him to bring me over. Cost me a dollar. 
Guess ye can keep me overnight. 

MARY ELLEN 

We're kind of up in arms — house cleanin' an' all. 
But Cynthy'd keep you — Cynthy Coleman. 



72 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 



NATHAN 



It's terrible costly gittin' round unless ye've got 
friends to put ye up. Well, you know what I come 
on here for? 

MARY ELLEN 
[Wildly.] 

Oh, I thought I did. Now you're here it seems like 
nothin' but a dream. 

NATHAN 

When I wrote ye I hadn't changed a hair, I meant it. 

MARY ELLEN 

I guess we've all changed. 

NATHAN 

So we have. So we have. Fur's our looks go. 
But I'd ha' known ye. 

MARY ELLEN 

My looks ain't nothin' to brag of. 

NATHAN 

They're good enough for me. "Favor is deceitful 
an' beauty is vain", the Scriptur' says. Mary Ellen, 
we've got to come to an understandin'. 

MARY ELLEN 

Not to-day, Nathan. Oh, not to-day. 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 73 

NATHAN 

Why ain't to-day as good as any? 

MARY ELLEN 

You've took me by surprise. I wanted you to come, 
an' now you're here — why, you're a stranger to me. 

NATHAN 

We'll marry fust an' do our courtin' afterwards. 
I don't want no talk about it till it's done. I won't 
have Aaron commandin' ye nor the girl persuadin' ye. 
I want ye to set the day an' set it now. 

MARY ELLEN 

[Shrinking as he advances.] 
I can't. 

NATHAN 

Don't ye say that. Ye've thought "can't" all your 
life ever sence your father come betwixt us. 

MARY ELLEN 

You've got to give me time, Nathan. You've got 
to give me time. 

NATHAN 

What for? 

MARY ELLEN 

I don't feel as if I knew you. 



74 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

NATHAN 

You knew me twenty-five or thirty year ago. 

MARY ELLEN 

Oh, yes. I knew you then. I thought I did. 

NATHAN 

Well, don't I tell ye I ain't changed? Except I've 
found the Lord. 

MARY ELLEN 

You look — changed. Your talk is changed. 

NATHAN 

Well, le's git to business. All that land you been 
buyin' up stan's in your name, don't it? 

MARY ELLEN 

Yes. 

NATHAN 

Aaron backed ye, didn't he? 

MARY ELLEN 

Backed me? 

NATHAN 

Give ye the money to buy, 

{She breaks down, laughing wildly.] 
What you laughin' at? 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 75 



MARY ELLEN 



Oh, I can't help laughin'. It's spring and Peter 
Hale's bringin' in apple blooms an' Nita stickin' 'em 
in my dress — an' you comin' back — an' our talkin' 
about money an' land. 



NATHAN 

I guess you're beat out. The old gentleman's sick- 
ness kinder told on ye, didn't it? Look here, Mary 
Ellen, long's Aaron's been buy in' up land adjoinin', 
why didn't he buy Mill Road Farm? 

MARY ELLEN 

It ain't in the market. 

NATHAN 

Oh, yes, 't is. I'd ought to know. It's mine. 

MARY ELLEN 

You've as good as sold it to Peter Hale. 

NATHAN 

There ain't no papers passed. 

MARY ELLEN 

That's what Aaron asked me. 

NATHAN 

He did, did he? Aaron's got his eye on it. 



76 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

MARY ELLEN 

What do you mean by papers passed? 

NATHAN 

[He takes a paper from his wallet and shows it to her.] 

Why, if I'd wanted to bind Peter Hale I'd ha' give 
him a paper like this. See ? I promise to sell, an' he 
pays me a sum o' money down. 

MARY ELLEN 

A sum o' money down. 
[She goes to the secretary drawer and takes out her purse.] 

NATHAN 

What ye got there? 

MARY ELLEN 

It's my pocket-book. It's all the money I've got in 
the world, twelve dollars an' eighty-five cents. 

NATHAN 

Land poor, ain't ye? Look here, Mary Ellen, you 
promise me. 

MARY ELLEN 

Promise what? 

NATHAN 

There ain't but one kind o' promise betwixt a man 
an' a woman. 



CHILDREN OF EARTH jy 

MARY ELLEN 

I can't. I can't. 

[Aaron and Anita come in.] 

AARON 

[With meaning, to Mary Ellen.] 

You had any talk with Buell about — you know? 

MARY ELLEN 

No, Aaron, not what you mean. 

AARON 

Look here, Nathan, you don't want to get rid o' Mill 
Road Farm, do ye? 

MARY ELLEN 

Brother ! 

AARON 

I understand you'd sell. 

NATHAN 

I dunno but I would an' I dunno as I would. 

MARY ELLEN 

Brother, the farm's as good as sold to Peter Hale. 

NATHAN 

That's all talk. 

AARON 

I'm prepared to make ye an offer. 



78 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

NATHAN 

I dunno's I'll sell. 

MARY ELLEN 

Nathan, would you take that farm away from Peter 
Hale, an' sell it to my brother ? 

NATHAN 

I dunno but I would an' I dunno as I would. 

MARY ELLEN 

I tell you, you can't do it. Peter Hale's got all his 
apple trees in order, an' the Hale's Favorite is bloomed 
full. You can't ask him to go away an' leave that tree. 

ANITA 

No! 

AARON 

Fll offer ye a third more'n you were goin' to git 
from Hale. 

NATHAN 

Le's see — how much'd I tell Hale he could have it 
for? 

AARON 

Twelve hunderd. So he said. 

NATHAN 

A third o' twelve is four an' twelve an' four's 
sixteen — 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 



MARY ELLEN 



79 



Look here, Nathan. Don't you sell that farm to 
Aaron. You sell it to me. 



NATHAN 

[Indulgently.^ 
I guess you better let Aaron an' me dicker a spell. 

AARON 

It's business, Mary Ellen. You stay out on't now. 

MARY ELLEN 

Wa'n't it business when I bought up all the land 
round here? Wa'n't it business when you beseeched 
me to buy Mill Road Farm? Well, I'm buyin' it. 
Nathan, I want Mill Road Farm. 

NATHAN 

I guess 'twill be full as well if you let Aaron an' me 
talk it over together. 

MARY ELLEN 

[To Nathan, with a sudden breathless resolution.^ 
You remember that promise you jest asked me for? 

NATHAN 

I thought you'd come to it. 



8o CHILDREN OF EARTH 

MARY ELLEN 

If you'll sell me Mill Road Farm — 

ANITA 

Aunt Mary Ellen! Don't! 

MARY ELLEN 

You sell me Mill Road Farm, an' I'll agree to marry 
you. An' I'll pay you your price. Only you give me 
time to do it in. You give me a month. 

ANITA 

Aunt Mary Ellen! 

AARON 

Marry him? You're a born fool. The man don't 
want ye. 

NATHAN 

Aaron, you keep out. This is a little understandin' 
betwixt Mary Ellen an' me. 

[He turns to Mary Ellen.] 
I'll sell ye the farm. 

AARON 

You've heard I'm well off, an' you want to feather 
your nest. 

NATHAN 
[With an effect of placating Aaron.] 

The question before the house is now, sellin' that 
farm. 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 8l 

MARY ELLEN 
{She brings pen and ink from the desk to the tahle.^ 
I want papers passed between us. I want it fair 
an' square. Where's that paper? 
[He produces it.^ 
Write my name instead o' Peter Hale's. 

[She puts money on the table.] 
An' there's ten dollars. That's "money down". 

NATHAN 
[Writing.] 
Consid'able of a business woman, ain't ye? I ex- 
pect to be proud o' ye. 

MARY ELLEN 
[Reading over his shoulder.] 
"In consideration of" — That's right, I guess, 
Aaron, ain't it right? 

AARON 
[Reading.] 
That's right. 

MARY ELLEN 

Nita, you be the witness. 

ANITA 

I won't. 

MARY ELLEN 

Aaron, you witness. 

[Aaron signs.] 



82 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

ANITA 

Tear the paper up. 

AARON 

Mary Ellen, I'll keep it for ye. 

MARY ELLEN 

[Snatching the paper from under Aaron's hand.] 

No. I've got it an' I'll keep it. Then I shall know 
where I be. Now I'm goin'. 

ANITA 

Where are you going? 

MARY ELLEN 

Down to Mill Road Farm. To tell Peter Hale we've 
got ahead of him. He had faith in another man, so 
he didn't ask for papers signed an' money down. 
That's how we could git ahead of him. We're so ter- 
rible knowin' we pay money down. You can come 
an' see the trees blessed, them trees you were goin' to 
buy from under Peter Hale's hand. But you ain't 
going to tell him we've got ahead of him. That's mine 
to do. 

[She runs out, leaving them amazed.] 

CURTAIN 



ACT II 

The same afternoon, a little later. The dooryard of 
Mill Road Farm. There is an open shed connect- 
ing the end of the house with the barn. In each 
end of the shed — the one next the house and the 
one next the barn — are odd assortments of 
things having to do with farm life: a pile of wood, 
a chopping block, saw horse, tools, etc., near the 
house, and at the other end, old barrels, a work- 
bench, harness hung from pegs, etc. Near the 
house is the Hale's Favorite tree, and just be- 
yond the yard an orchard thick with bloom. As 
the curtain goes up voices are heard in the dis- 
tance singing "Summer Is Icumen In", presently 
dying quite away. 

Adam is doing the last clipping of grass round the 
Hale's Favorite. He is a fine, upstanding young 
fellow with a frank, free look. Jane comes out 
from the house. 

JANE 
Many of 'em come? 

ADAM 

Yes, a dozen or so. Down in the lower orchard. 
83 



84 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

JANE 

Where's Peter? 

ADAM 

Right here. 

[Jane takes up the basket of china Cynthia Coleman has left 
by the door and carries it off to the tables behind the 
hous'e. Peter comes in from the road. He carries 
"Barstow's clo'es" , and lays them on a covered barrel 
at the end of the shed.] 

PETER 

Well, Adam? 

ADAM 

Thought I'd mow round Hale's Favorite. 

PETER 

Yes. 

ADAM 

Going to have the first dance round it, aren't you? 

PETER 

No, the last. That brings us up here for the end. 

ADAM 

What you got there? 

PETER 

Old Barstow's clo'es. 

ADAM 

What for? 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 85 

PETER 

A young lady asked me to cart 'em away so's they 
shouldn't scare her Aunt Mary Ellen. 

ADAM 
[With sudden, vivid interest.] 
You've seen her then? 

PETER 

Mary Ellen? 

ADAM 

Have you seen Nita Barstow? 

PETER 

Yes. 

ADAM 

How'd she look? 

PETER 

You want to know whether she's frettin' for you? 
I don't believe anybody'd find that out in a hurry. 

ADAM , 

You didn't mention my name? 

PETER 

Not to her. I did to Mary Ellen. Barstow's told 
her about you an' the girl. 

ADAM 

What's he told her? 



86 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

PETER 

I dunno. But Mary Ellen's up in arms, ready to 
Stan' by you an' Nita. Adam, what parted ye? 

ADAM 

Shut up, Pete. 

PETER 

Hadn't you got ahead enough? 

ADAM 

Not to satisfy Barstow. 

PETER 

Well, what's he got to do with it anyway, if you 
suited his girl? 

ADAM 

That's it. 

PETER 

Didn't she — like you, Adam? 

ADAM 

Would you marry a girl that could be turned against 
you? 

PETER 

By George! I'd twitch her round an' turn her 
back ag'in. 

ADAM 

She's ambitious as the devil. 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 87 

PETER 

She don't look like that kind of a girl. 

ADAM 
[Grimly.'\ 
Well, she's a very good working model o£ that kind. 

PETER 

She's young. She don't know what she wants. You 
tell her. 

ADAM 

A woman that wants me'U know without telling. 

PETER 

She madded ye, didn't she, an' you laid back your 
ears an' stopped puUin'. 

ADAM 

I stopped talking. 

PETER 

See here, Adam. You look at the birds an' the 
other matin' things. What are they doin' this spring 
weather ? 

ADAM 

Getting a monopoly of hair and string. 

PETER 

They're charmin' their mates. 



88 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

ADAM 

I ain't long on birds. 

PETER 

Don't take much stock in the spring, do ye? 

ADAM 

No. 

PETER 

Didn't ye take stock in it last year? 

ADAM 

Oh, last year ! I felt different then. 

PETER 

Yes. You'd found your mate. But you hadn't the 
sense to coax her into the nest. O you fool! With 
the sun shinin' overhead an' the sap mountin' upwards 
an' the apple trees in bloom! If I was young, an' 
there was somebody that set her eyes by me no further 
away than Barstow's house up there — 

ADAM 

Look here, Pete. When it comes to the actual busi- 
ness of life, why are the Hales among the also-rans? 
It's because they live by that kind of moonshine you're 
talking. 

PETER 

Is it moonshine? 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 89 

ADAM 

For all practical purposes. Pete, I've hardened my- 
self. I'm a Hale all right, but I'm not going to let it 
keep me soft as it's kept you. 

PETER 

I sha'n't take no less care o' the apple trees for git- 
tin' kinder crazy over their blooms. If that girl comes 
here to-day — 

ADAM 

[Quickly.l 
Is she coming ? 

PETER 

If she comes, you tell her how 'tis with ye. Pull 
her into the dancin' ring an' let her know you're 
Adam — an' she's Eve. 

ADAM 

Hypnotism ? No, thank you. I tell you a woman's 
got to believe in me. 

PETER 

Mary Ellen does. 

ADAM 

She took your word. 

PETER 

Like a shot. Mary Ellen's warm-blooded. Dif- 
ferent species from you young shell-fish. 
[His face darkens.^ 

Buell's come. 



90 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

ADAM 

Nate Buell? 

PETER 

Yes. 

ADAM 

Then you'll conclude your sale. 

PETER 

Yes. But that ain't what he's here for. He's court- 
in' Mary Ellen. 

ADAM 

Why, she's an old — 

PETER 

No, by George! She ain't so old as I am, not by 
five years. 

ADAM 

How old's Buell? 

PETER 

That ain't the question. He's after Mary Ellen. 
An' if what I think of Buell's half true, he's after her 
for her money. 

ADAM 

Oho ? She's the one that's been raking in farms. 

PETER 

An' Buell's onto it. 

{The fiddlers are heard in the distance, "bowing and scrap- 
ing" an invitation to the dance. The "neighbors", Cyn- 
thia among them, run in, romping and laughing. The 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 91 

children are wild with excitement in a good-natured 
baiting of Uncle Eph, who makes futile darts at them, 
whereupon they escape, shrieking in delight.^ 



CHILDREN 

Uncle Eph! Uncle Eph! 

CYNTHIA 
[To another woman.] 
He's right on hand. 'Specially if there's any sweet 
trade goin'. 

YOUNG MAN 

[Wonderingly, to a young girl.] 
Love-cracked ! ain't it queer ! 

GIRL 

[Coquettishly.] 

I don't see why anybody need to care so much if 
anybody wouldn't marry 'em. 

YOUNG MAN 

/ should. 

GIRL 

Oh, you ! I guess so. 

CHILDREN 
[Breaking out again.] 
Uncle Eph ! Uncle Eph ! 



92 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

EPH 

Ha! ye little devils! Ye dassent touch me. Ye 
wouldn't come buzzin' round unless there's folks to 
uphold ye in it, 

CHILDREN 

Preach a sermon ! Preach a sermon ! 

CYNTHIA 
{To a man.'] 
Won't you stop them boys hectorin' that poor soul? 

MAN 

Oh, they don't mean no harm. He's as pleased as 
they be. 

CHILDREN 

Give us a blessin'. 

CYNTHIA 

[Reprovingly.} 
No! No! 

CHILDREN 

Preach to us! Preach to us! 

EPH 

[Mounting an old broken chair.} 

Ladies an' gentlemen — no, no — bretheren an' — no, 

no — feller sinners — You will find my text in the — 

[He grows vague and tries to collect himself.] 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 93 

BOYS 

Forty-'leventh chapter. Forty-'leventh chapter. 

EPH 

We are gethered together — 

CYNTHIA 

There ! You step down. You've gone fur enough. 

EPH 

{With great importance. \ 

Don't you meddle with me. Unless you'd ruther 
pronounce the blessin'. If ye don't, I will. 

BOY 

Uncle Eph! how 'bout that time you got married? 

EPH 

Where'd ye git hold o' that? 

CHILDREN 

Tell us 'bout your gittin' married. 

EPH 

There was two on 'em — my fust trollope an' my 
second trollope— an' there wa'n't a hair to choose be- 
twixt 'em. Two trollopes. An' bad was the best. 



94 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

CHILDREN 

What'd they do ? What'd they do? 

EPH 

One on 'em was as close as the bark to a tree. 
[He bends down confidentially.] 

Look-a-here. Don't ye let it go no further. She'd 
make one-two-three-four cake an' never put in no 
egg. 

CHILDREN 

Which one was that? 

EPH 

Black-hair, that's what she was, my black-haired 
trollope. 

[With the air of telling something of great value.] 

She'd mix up sawdust an' feed it out to the hens. 
[The children laugh. He goes delightedly on.] 

My fust trollope an' my last trollope an' my fust 
hens an' my last hens — 

MAN 

How 'bout your t'other wife, Uncle Eph? 

EPH 

That's my red-haired trollope. How'd ye know? 
She'd throw the soap grease to the pigs. D'ye ever 
hear o' such a thing as that? An' she took my good 
money an' bought her a green rep sofy — 
[Jane returns, and goes to him.] 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 95 

JANE 

Come, you git down off there. 
[To the crowd.'] 

I s'pose you think you're smart, badgerin' a poor 
thing like that. 

[To Eph.] 
You git down. 

[Eph gets down and approaches her.] 

EPH 

[To Jane.] 
Here ! Le's you an' me git married. 

[He touches her sleeve persuasively.} 

JANE 

Don't you lay your hand on me. 
[She goes toward the house and he follows her.] 

EPH 

You ain't like other folks. I ain't like other folks. 
Le's you an' me git married. 

JANE 

[Turning upon him from the steps.] 

Don't you foller me one step further. 

[She goes quickly in and shuts the door in his face. He 
looks at it, grieved for a moment, and then, with his 
childish laugh, turns back to the crowd.] 



96 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

CHILDREN 
[Dancing round him.^ 
You marry us. You marry us. 

[Cynthia goes away to the tahles.'\ 

A BOY 
[Dragging a girl up to Eph.] 
Here! You marry us. 

THE GIRL 

[Fighting him with vigor.] 

Hen Blaisdell, I should think you'd be ashamed. 

BOY 

Walk right up to the dough dish. 

GIRL 

I won't do no such thing. 

BOY 

Might's well fust as last. 
[They struggle and the crowd jeers: "Shame! Shame!"] 

CHILDREN 
[Singing.] 
Henry Blaisdell, so they say, 
Goes a-courtin' night an' day, 



CHILDREN OP EARTH gf 

Sword an' pistol by his side : 
Lulie Bell shall be his bride. 

EPH 

[More and more excited over the topic of "getting married", 
he runs to the couple and exhorts them wildly.^ 

You keep away from one another. Don't ye git 
married. Don't ye touch one another with a ten-foot 
pole. You better be biled in ile. Don't none o' ye git 
married. 

[Cynthia comes in with a half-glass of lemonade which she 
imbibes with relish.] 

CYNTHIA 
[To Eph.] 

Ye poor soul, ye've got all het up, carryin' on so. 
You come out to the table an' I'll give ye some lemon- 
ade. 

EPH 

Lemonade ! Lemonade ! 

[He hops out, and the crozvd runs after, singing "Summer 
Is Icumen In", the music fading away in the distance.] 

ADAM 
[To Peter.] 
We'd better go along, too, an' start 'em off. 

PETER 

They're started all right. Yes, I s'pose we might 
as well. 

[As they turn Mary Ellen comes in, breathless.] 



98 CHILDREN OF ^ARTH 

MARY ELLEN 

Peter ! Peter ! 

PETER 

Mary Ellen ! 

MARY ELLEN 

Adam, that you? Peter, I've come to tell you what 
I've done. 

PETER 
[Bringing forward the chair.] 
Sit down. You're all beat out. 

MARY ELLEN 

I want to be the first to tell you. I've got ahead 
of you. I've bought the farm. 

PETER 

What farm? 

MARY ELLEN 

This. This that you wanted more'n your life. 

PETER 

Why, I've got an option on it. 

MARY ELLEN 

You thought you'd got it, but I'm ahead of you, 
Peter. The farm's mine. 

PETER 

Don't you say another word till you git your breath. 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 99 

MARY ELLEN 

You don't believe it. But it's true. I've bought 
Mill Road Farm. 

PETER 

There, there, Mary Ellen ! Course you ain't bought 
this farm over my head. 

MARY ELLEN 

I tell you I have. 

PETER 

Well, if you want me to believe you've done it, tell 
me what ye done it for. 

MARY ELLEN 

Don't ask me that, Peter. 

PETER 

If it's true, I ain't likely to ask you twice. If you 
could do it, that's enough. 

MARY ELLEN 

Don't you go to Nate Buell about it. 

PETER 

If it's so, it's his place to come to me. 

MARY ELLEN 

Oh, he'll come. He won't risk no slip-up through 
you. Don't you speak a word. They'll be down here 



lOO CHILDREN OF EARTH 

soon's they've talked it over. They'll git ahead o' 
me now, if there's a cent to be made. Don't you open 
your lips. Not till the deed is passed. 

PETER 

If the deed ain't passed, you ain't bought the farm. 
If you've got nothin' but Buell's word — 

MARY ELLEN 
[Thrusting the agreement at him.'\ 
Look here. 

PETER 
[Taking it.] 
Adam, you look. 

MARY ELLEN 

An' what do you s'pose I've paid for it? 

PETER 

I don't want to know what ye paid. 

ADAM 
[Reading from the paper.] 
Ten dollars down and fifteen hundred and ninety 
in one month. 

MARY ELLEN 

The paper don't tell all. 



CHILDREN OF EARTH lol 



PETER 



I don't understand ye. You could do that. You 
could take the farm away from me — 

MARY ELLEN 

I've got to do more than that. I've got to ask ye 
for money to pay for it. 

PETER 
{Giving her the paper.] 
I don't know ye, Mary Ellen. 

MARY ELLEN 
{Taking the paper.] 
Can't you trust me? 

PETER 

Yes. In spite of this. 

MARY ELLEN 

Ain't you got the sixteen hunderd dollars, Peter ? 

PETER 

Yes. I've got it. 

MARY ELLEN 

Wouldn't you have paid that much if Nathan'd 
asked it, an' you see there wa'n't no other way? 



102 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

PETER 

Yes. Or two thousand either. An' that's every 
cent I've got in the world. 

MARY ELLEN 

Then you let me have that sixteen hunderd. You 
let me have it, Peter. 

PETER 

Ain't your brother backin' ye? 

MARY ELLEN 

Don't you question me. You promise me that 
money now 'fore they come. I ain't got a cent, Peter, 
not a cent, except what's in my purse. 

PETER 

Then what'd ye promise it for? 

MARY ELLEN 

I promised everything I had. I promised to marry 
Nathan Buell. 

PETER 

That's no more'n ye meant to do. Ye said as much. 

MARY ELLEN 

That was before I'd seen him. 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 



PETER 



103 



But you have seen him. An' still you're goin' to 
marry him. 

MARY ELLEN 

He's promised me Mill Road Farm an' I've prom- 
ised him that. He's written his promise in this paper, 
an' I s'pose mine is wrote above. 

PETER 

You're welcome to the money. 

MARY ELLEN 

An' they ain't to know it. Remember that. I've 
got to hold the deed in my hand an' then they shall 
know the whole. So shall you, Peter. You can think 
hard o' me till then, if you must. I can bear that too. 

PETER 

I don't think hard o' you. Aaron's your brother. 
I s'pose you'd rob a church — for him. 

MARY ELLEN 

Oh, no, I wouldn't. Not for him. Hush, hear 'em 
talkin' — Aaron an' Nathan. 

PETER 

Comin' to see how cold the sheep is sence they 
sheared him. 

{Aaron, Nathan and Anita come in from the road. A snatch 
of singing, to "Come, Lasses and Lads", in the distance.] 



104 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

NATHAN 

Well, how fur ye got talkin' on't over? 

AARON 
[To Peter.] 
Pretty full blow this year. 

PETER 

Yes. Full blow. 

ADAM 
[Eagerly.] 
How are you, Nita? 

ANITA 
[As if pleasantly surprised.] 
How are you, Adam ? 

AARON 
[As if unpleasantly surprised. To Adam.] 

How are ye, Hale? Didn't know you were here. 
I guess I'll step into the old kitchen. See if things 
look as they used to. Come, Nita. 

PETER 

I guess things ain't much altered. 

ANITA 

I'm not going, father. I want to — bless the trees. 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 105 

ADAM 
{In incredulous happiness.] 
Will you do it with me? 

ANITA 

Is it singing? 

ADAM 

Yes. And dancing. 

ANITA 

I'll dance round just four trees. Those four out 
there. 

[They suddenly take hands and run oif to the orchard.] 

AARON 

[Calling.] 
Nita, you wait. 

[To Mary Ellen.] 
Did she know he was here? 

MARY ELLEN 

I told her. 

AARON 

Then she'd no business to come down here. Mary 
Ellen, you run after 'em. Keep 'em from havin' any 
words together. You're light on your feet. You run. 

MARY ELLEN 

I ain't light enough for that. 



I06 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

NATHAN 

Look here, Hale. I s'pose Mary Ellen's told ye I've 
made a little change in disposin' o' this farm? 

PETER 

Yes. 

NATHAN 

I said if everything went as I expected, mebbe I'd 
give ye a chance to buy. 

PETER 

That ain't exactly as I recall it. But it's all one. 

NATHAN 

But here was Mary Ellen took a notion to the farm, 
an' nothin'd do but she must have it. You know what 
women folks be. So seein' she'd set her heart on it, I 
up an' told her she should have it. 

PETER 

So 1 hear. 

AARON 

[To Peter.] 
1 won't hurry ye off. 

PETER 

What have you got to do with it ? 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 107 

AARON 

Buell's tellin' ye. He's signed an agreement to 
sell us the farm. 

MARY ELLEN 

It ain't you, brother. It's me. 

AARON 

Well! well! It's all one. 

NATHAN 

Speak up, Mary Ellen. 

MARY ELLEN 

Don't you push me, Nathan. 

AARON 

Hale, you won't feel so sore if I tell ye I had my 
reasons for buyin' this place. 

NATHAN 

It's Mary Ellen that's bought it. 

AARON 

I've been pickin' up land round here for quite a 
while. 

NATHAN 

It's Mary Ellen that done it. 



lo8 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

AARON 

I bought in her name. 

MARY ELLEN 

In my name? 

AARON 

You'll transfer to me later. 

MARY ELLEN 

Then it ain't my land ? 

NATHAN 

Yes, 'tis. Yes, 'tis. 

PETER 

It is, Mary Ellen. 

AARON 

Course 'tis, legally. But don't you know that's all 
one? You acted for me. 

MARY ELLEN 

You didn't tell me I was actin' for you. 

AARON 

I wanted ye to act in good faith. 

NATHAN 

Well, so long as Mary Ellen acted in good faith, 
the land's her'n. 



CHILDREN OF MRTH 16^ 

AARON 

When I tell her how I'm gom' to dispose of it, 
she'll be glad an' thankful to sign it over. That land's 
to be a deed o' gift to the state, for use as a Public 
Park known as the Barstow Reservation. 

MARY ELLEN 

The state? 

AARON 

Yes, sir. The state. My native state. 

NATHAN 
[Skeptically.l 

You've bought up a third o' this township to give 
it away? 

MARY ELLEN 

Brother, you ain't used me for a tool ? I bought the 
land. It all Stan's in my name. 

AARON 

Yes. So fur, 

MARY ELLEN 

An' now I'm to make it over to you? 

AARON 

Course ye be. 

MARY ELLEN 

Then I tell you in so many words, I won't do it. 



no CHILDREN OF EARTH 

NATHAN 

Good for you, Mary Ellen. 

MARY ELLEN 

It ain't the worth o' the land. But you let me be- 
lieve you were thinkin' o' me, an' you never were, not 
for one instant. An' I tell you this. The land stan's 
in my name. An' I won't give it up. So help me, 
God. 

NATHAN 

Course ye won't. Don't you back down. He can't 
make ye. 

AARON 

Le's consider how we stan'. You've made an agree- 
ment to buy this farm. 

MARY ELLEN 

An' I've paid money down. 

AARON 

How ye goin' to pay the rest? 

MARY ELLEN 

I'm goin' to borrer it. 

AARON 

Where's your security? 



CHILDREN OF EARTH m 



NATHAN 



You've got plenty o' time, Mary Ellen. 'Tain't for a 
month. But ye'll have to pay up then. An' I expect 
ye to pay for the deed. 

AARON 

Yes. Over fifteen hunderd. Where you goin' to 
git it? 

MARY ELLEN 

It'll be provided. 

NATHAN 

I guess you'll advance her the money, Aaron. 

AARON 
[To Mary Ellen.'] 
You ain't got a dollar to your name. Ye don't own 
the clo'es ye stan' up in. 

MARY ELLEN 
{With a childlike simplicity.] 
It's mother's dress. 

[In a sudden dazed understanding.] 

But I don't s'pose I do own my clo'es. I bought 
'em out o' the money you sent father. Yes, 'twas your 
money — an' his. 

AARON 

Don't be a fool, Mary Ellen. I only want ye to 
realize where ye stan'. 



ili CHILDREN OF EARTH 

MARY ELLEN 
[In a tremulous hopefulness.^ 
Nathan, I ain't got anything to bring you. Mebbe 
you won't want me now. 

PETER 
[Turning aside.] 
My God A'mighty! 

NATHAN 

Ye've got all the land ye had a minute ago, if ye'll 
only hang on to it. 

MARY ELLEN 

Don't you prize me without the land? 

NATHAN 

What's the use o' talkin' that way ? You've got the 
land. 

MARY ELLEN 
[Wildly.] 

My promise ! Give me back my promise. 

PETER 

Don't ask him for it. Break it. 

NATHAN 

A bargain's a bargain. 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 113 

MARY ELLEN 

A bargain. It's all bargains, then. Well, I'm done. 

AARON 

Now what d'ye mean by that? 

MARY ELLEN 

I'm sold up. Bankrupt. I had my youth. I'd ought 
to spent it as God meant a woman should. Keepin' my 
house. Bringin' up my children. 

AARON 

Pretty talk for a good modest woman. 

MARY ELLEN 

An' how'd I spend my youth? Livin' out my sen- 
tence in that house up there — 

AARON 

You were takin' care o' father. 

MARY ELLEN 

Settin' at his table because he thought I'd ought to 
set there, an' bakin' his bread because he thought I'd 
ought to bake it. 

AARON 

You could ha' had a hired girl. 



114 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

MARY ELLEN 

But all the time I lived in a dream. 
[Pointing to Nathan.} 

About that man. An' did he dream o' me ? No. I 
s'pose I never once come into his head till he heard I 
was buyin' up land. Then he thought I was a good 
investment, an' he come on here after me. 

NATHAN 

Mary Ellen, it's enough to make anybody stop an' 
think, hearin' a woman talk like that. 

MARY ELLEN 

One after another you've traded in me, same's if I 
was a slave. I shouldn't ha' minded if you'd told me 
I was a slave. But you were always actin' as if I'd 
ought to be thankful for your showin' me how to put 
the spoon to my mouth. 

AARON 

I should think you were crazed. Git hold o' your- 
self. 

MARY ELLEN 

An' now I've had enough of it, an' I want to be 
free. 

[A snatch of singing in the distance, "Early One Morning".^ 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 115 

PETER 

Yes, an' before another day's gone over our heads, 
you shall be. 

NATHAN 

You ve made a bindin' promise. 

[Adam and Anita come running in, he determined, she gay 
and breathless.^ 

AARON 

Come, Nita. Come, Mary Ellen. We better be 
gittin' along home. 

ADAM 

[To Aaron.] 

Mr. Barstow, give me a minute, will you? I've got 
something to say to you, and I want to say it right 
here. 

NATHAN 
[Disgustedly.] 
This's no place to talk business. 

[He goes off, with the effect of washing his hands of "fol- 
derol", to the road.] 

ADAM 

I won't be long. 

ANITA 

What is it, Adam? 

ADAM 



Mr. Barstow, I want a new deal. 



Il6 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

AARON 

I dunno what ye mean. Come, Nita. 

ADAM 

I thought I never should say another word to Nita, 
nor to you. But now I want to say it right here in 
this town where you began yourself, 

AARON 

That's a good many years ago. Things have 
changed consid'able. 

ADAM 

But I want you to remember where you began. And 
I want Nita to see with her own eyes how I'm begin- 
ning. I've gone into partnership with Pete. 

AARON 

Well, I hope ye'll get on. Come, Nita. 

ANITA 

Tell us, Adam. 

ADAM 

If Pete's got to give up this place he'll begin some- 
where else and I shall begin with him. But Anita 
can look round here, right here, and see what kind of 
a life she'd lead with me. 

AARON 

Yes. She can. 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 117 

ANITA 

Father ! 

ADAM 
[To Anita.'] 
This is the last word I've got to say. Will you 
marry me? 

ANITA 
{Hopeless over this species of love-making.] 
Adam! 

ADAM 

Perhaps live in a place just such as this. Get your 
hands dirty and your face burnt and — do your part. 

AARON 

Live in some God-forsaken hole — 

ADAM 

Maybe. I tell you it's no cinch marrying me. 
You've got to take me as I am. 

ANITA 

But you don't care for things other people care 
for. 

AARON 

There never was a Hale that did. 

ANITA 

You're so clever, Adam. You could put yourself 
anywhere. 



Il8 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

ADAM 

Nita, I'm showing you the worst you'd ever have 
to bear. If I can better it for you, don't you think I 
will? But I won't bribe you. 

ANITA 

That's not — caring. 

ADAM 

Oh, I've heard the receipt for making love. But 
that's not my way. The girl that marries me has got 
to begin by believing in me. Your father's told you 
what you can expect of a Hale. Now I'll tell you. A 
Hale — of this generation — can stiffen his backbone 
just about the time you think he hasn't got any. And 
when he's talked about so much — to no good — he can 
shut his mouth. 

ANITA 

You don't care for anything but — yourself and the 
Hales. 

ADAM 

That settles it. 

[He turns away and strides off behind the house.] 

ANITA 
[Miserably.] 
Come, father, let's go home. 

AARON 

Come, Mary Ellen. 
[Singing, "Come, Lasses and Lqds", in the distance.) 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 119 

ANITA 
[To Mary Ellen.] 
Are you going to stay? 

MARY ELLEN 

I dunno. I dunno where I can stay. You go with 
him, Nita. Git him away from here. 

[Anita and Aaron go oif to the road.] 

Peter, I dunno what I've said to 'em nor what I 
ain't. But whatever 'twas, I had to say it. 

PETER 

You've let out more this one day than all the time 
I've known ye. 

MARY ELLEN 

It's been locked up in me, an' now it's come out. 
Peter, I've set with father twenty-six years, at the 
table, in the evenin' by the lamp, an' I might ha' been 
a dumb woman for all I said to him or all he wanted 
me to say. 

PETER 

You've been jailed. 

MARY ELLEN 

Yes. My thoughts were prisoners. An' now they're 
comin' out like the swallows out o' that barn. See 'em 
circle. O my God ! I don't hardly know the shape o' 
my thoughts now I see 'em, But they're flyin' out, 



I20 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

PETER 

My thoughts, too. They've been locked up. I don't 
know's they'd ever got their wings if you hadn't told 
me you're goin' to marry Buell. 

MARY ELLEN 

You can't stop it. Nor I can't. 

PETER 

You an' I've got to speak the truth. My thoughts 
are flyin' out, same as yours. It's the spring day that 
set 'em free. 

MARY ELLEN 
[IVonderingly.] 
Is it the spring day? 

PETER 

Yes. Everything's breakin' bounds. 

MARY ELLEN 
[Dazed and passing her hand before her eyes.] 
Seems as if there was a mist. The apple blooms 
look dim. 

[The singing ceases.] 

PETER 

Yes. There is a mist. But we've got to see clear, 
I tell you. We've got to see clear. 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 121 

MARY ELLEN 

Then you help me. 

PETER 

How'm I goin' to, when all I see is a picture? Not 
you an' Nate Buell married an' goin' off together — 

MARY ELLEN 

Together ! 

PETER 

I can't see you an' him. I see you sittin' here by 
right. You'd be my wife. 

MARY ELLEN 

We never met then. When we were young. 

PETER 

Ain't you seen I loved you? 

MARY ELLEN 

You've been terrible kind to me. 

PETER 

What'd I do your chores for, an' wait an' tend, if't 
wa'n't for love o' you? 

MARY ELLEN 

Why, you were a good neighbor. 



122 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

PETER 

What'd I hang round the house for, night after 
night, till your light went out? 

MARY ELLEN 

Did you? 

PETER 

Yes. I couldn't sleep till I knew you could. 

MARY ELLEN 

Why, that's like young folks. 

PETER 

Love's all the same, young or old. 

MARY ELLEN 

I thought't would be like that when he come back. 
But now he's come, I can't feel anything. 

PETER 

No, you can't. 

MARY ELLEN 

I'm past lovin'. 

PETER 

You're past lovin' Buell. Are you past lovin' me? 

MARY ELLEN 

I 4on't use that word for yoUr 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 123 

PETER 

Use it then. Say it. Love. 

MARY ELLEN 

Love. 

PETER 

Has he kissed you? 

MARY ELLEN 

No. 

PETER 

When he does you remember this — an' this. 
[He draws her to him and kisses her passionately.] 

MARY ELLEN 

[As he releases her.] 
Oh, God help me! 

PETER 

Help you git away from me? 

MARY ELLEN 

Help me to keep my promise. Help me not to be 
like this. 

PETER 

I've kissed you to put bonds on you. To let you 
know you're mine. 

MARY ELLEN 

Yes. I ain't anybody's but yours, Ap' I neyer 
Hnew it, 



124 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

PETER 

You've dwelt on Nathan Buell every day o' your 
life for twenty-six years. But after this when you 
shut your eyes you won't see him. You'll see me. 

MARY ELLEN 

What made you do it, Peter? O, what made you? 

PETER 

Kiss you? I've kissed you so you'd know. Don't 
ye know now? 

MARY ELLEN 

Yes. 

PETER 

He ain't goin' to trample you down under his hoofs. 
You're ?s delicate as them blooms. 



MARY ELLEN 

I've promised him. 

PETER 

That tree don't remember 'twas bare a month ago. 
The past is dead. Everything that happened in it's 
dead. The tree's in bloom. O Mary Ellen, the blooms 
are sweet. 

MARY ELLEN 

I've given him my promise. 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 



PETER 



125 



When I kissed you, did you think of anything but 
me? 

MARY ELLEN 

No! no! 

PETER 

Where's your heart? Answer me. Ain't it right 
here by mine where it was a minute ago? Ain't it 
racin' to git back there? Won't it ache as long as 
you live if it's never goin' to lay there any more? 

MARY ELLEN 

My promise! 

[She has retreated from him and lays her hand on the pile 
of clothes on the barrel, glances down at them, pulls her 
hand away and cries out as if they scorched her.] 

peter' 
His clo'es. 

MARY ELLEN 

How'd they come here? 



PETER 

I promised Anita I'd burn 'em. 

MARY ELLEN 

You talk about the past bein' dead. There they 
are, like a risin' out o' the past. 



126 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

PETER 

He never wanted ye to marry Buell. 

MARY ELLEN 

No. But they bring back the days an' nights when 
I grew old doin' for him, an' all them days an' nights 
I was true to Nathan Buell. 

PETER 

Two years o' that time you an' I were gittin' to 
love each other. We didn't know it. But so 'twas. 

MARY ELLEN 

Two years ain't twenty-six. An' I've promised. 

PETER 

Don't you love me ? 

MARY ELLEN 

I'd die for you. Is that lovin' you? 

PETER 

Don't that give me rights over ye? 

MARY ELLEN 

I tell you I'd die for you. An' I'm doin' what's 
worse than death. I'm marryin' Nathan Buell. 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 127 

PETER 
[In sudden understanding.] 
To buy the farm? You're buyin' it for me. 

MARY ELLEN 

Yes. 

PETER 

For me. You give yourself for me. 

MARY ELLEN 

I'd have give' myself twenty times over. 

[He draws her to him and kisses her. lane comes out from 
the kitchen, stands a moment, looking at them, and Peter 
raises his head and stares at her. Mary Ellen follows his 
glance and turns to face her.] 

PETER 

Jane! 

MARY ELLEN 

Jane! Jane, I never remembered you were in the 
world. 

[A burst of singing from the orchard, "Come, Lasses and 
Lads".] 

JANE 

[Coming down from the steps, halting a moment and then 
taking her way toward the orchard.] 

They're dancin'. You'd ought to be down there. 



128 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

MARY ELLEN 

Jane, what am I goin' to say to you? 

JANE 

I didn't ask you anything. 

MARY ELLEN 

I'd ruther you'd kill me than look like that. 

PETER 
[To Jane.] 
No. Don't say anything to her. Say it to me. 

JANE 

You'd ought to be down there. 

[She goes off to the orchard.] 

MARY ELLEN 

Why didn't she strike me down? 

PETER 

She didn't see — 

MARY ELLEN 

She did. What's in her mind? 

PETER 

I never know what's in her mind. 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 129 

MARY ELLEN 

I'm a bad woman, an' she's found it out. 

PETER 

I won't have you say that. 

MARY ELLEN 

It's true. 

PETER 

Don't you look down on what we feel for one 
another. It ain't a bad thing. It's a good thing. 

MARY ELLEN 
It's a terrible thing. 

PETER 

It's so big it's come out an' let us see it. An' now 
we've seen it we can take care of it. So't won't hurt 
you. 

MARY ELLEN 

The hurt's been done. To Jane. 

PETER 

It's the big dream, Mary Ellen — the birds an' the 
blooms an' you an' me. 

MARY ELLEN 

But there's Jane. Is Jane in the dream? 



130 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

PETER 

My God ! Yes. Jane's in it. That's it. 

[Controlling himself.} 
Mary Ellen, we've got to do things. An' we've got 
to plan the way to do 'em. 

[Adam comes back, and goes to the bench at the end of the 
shed, ostensibly searching for something there, but only 
to keep away from the merrymaking. \ 

ADAM 

You shirking the crowd, too? You ought to go 
down, Peter. They're asking for you. 

PETER 

[To Mary Ellen."] 

I've got to talk to Adam. Go into the kitchen. I 
won't be a minute. 

[He opens the door for her and she goes.] 
PETER 

Adam, we've done with this place. 

ADAM 

You've lost the farm all right. 

PETER 

I'm goin' to git out. 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 



131 



ADAM 

[Going to Peter.'] 

I'm with you there. Ready whenever you say the 
word. 

PETER 

'Twon't take me long to settle up. 

ADAM 

You'll have to sell your stock. 

PETER 

Likely. Jane won't want it. 

ADAM 

Jane? You going in advance? 

PETER 

I'm leavin' her. 

ADAM 

Not— 

PETER 
[Savagely.] 
Yes. Leavin' — leavin'. 

ADAM 

You've told her? 

PETER 

No. 



132 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

ADAM 
Square deal? 

PETER 

D'ye think Fd go otherwise ? 

ADAM 

Want to start out with me and see what we can 
make of it? 

PETER 

I'm not goin' alone, 

ADAM 

I know who the woman is, Pete. 

PETER 

Stop! You've said enough. 

ADAM 

The look on her face ! That's why you can't do it. 
She's as simple-minded as a girl. You can't do it, 
Pete. You sha'n't. 

PETER 

Oh, yes, I shall. 

ADAM 

I won't let you. 

PETER 

I've let a good many things stand in my way first an 
last, but the man that stands in my way now — 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 133 

ADAM 

Well, what? 

PETER 

Adam, all I say is, don't you be that man. 
[They face each other for an instant, hostile and threatening.] 

ADAM 

{Getting hold of himself.'] 

Pete, you and I can't scrap like kids. Wait till this 
crowd is gone and we'll talk it over. Better still, wait 
till to-morrow morning. 

[He walks off in a direction -well away from the orchard and 
the "crowd".] 

PETER 

To-morrer ! 

[He goes to the kitchen door.] 
Mary Ellen! 

[Mary Ellen comes out.] 
Do you know what I'm goin' to tell Jane? 

MARY ELLEN 

No. 

PETER 

It's this. You're goin' away with me. 

MARY ELLEN 

Peter! You've lost your mind! 



134 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

PETER 

I'll give her every cent I've got in the world, an' 
to-morrer mornin' you an' I'll be free. We'll tramp 
an' I'll find work. 

MARY ELLEN 

Where? 

PETER 

Wherever I can. That'll settle it. 

MARY ELLEN 
[In wonder.'] 
You talk as if the world had been made over — new. 

PETER 

It has. It's our world now. We're goin' off to live 
in our own world. 

MARY ELLEN 

Runnin' away — with another woman's — 

PETER 

Yes. Run as the rivers run — to meet. Fly as the 
birds do, with their own true mates. Ain't you got 
the courage? 

MARY ELLEN 

I don't know whether it's courage that's drawin' 
me — ' 

PETER 

It's everything together. An' the word for it's love. 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 135 

MARY ELLEN 

You've crazed me. I've got to think. 

PETER 

You ain't got but one thing to do. Be ready. For 
to-night. 

[Singing from the orchard, "Come, Lasses and Lads", alter- 
nating with "Early One Morning".] 

MARY ELLEN 

To-night? 

PETER 

After they're all in bed, slip out an' come down to 
Pine Tree Spring. You'll find me waitin' there. We'll 
stay till early train time. 

MARY ELLEN 

Shall we take — the train? 

PETER 

At the junction. 

MARY ELLEN 

Not the 6:20. 

PETER 

No. We don't want to start off from the depot 
here. 

MARY ELLEN 

No. Not Aaron's train. 



136 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

PETER 
[With violence, to himself.] 
The only way to leave 'em is to go. 

MARY ELLEN 

Think o' her. 

PETER 

What's she care? No more'n that tree. 

MARY ELLEN 

But you're married to her. 

PETER 

Who married me to her? A man. God Almighty 
married me to you. When I looked at you, when I 
touched you, I knew. You're mine, Mary Ellen, you're 
mine. 

MARY ELLEN 

I can't be. You're in wedlock. 

PETER 

Ain't you been a prisoner all your life? 

MARY ELLEN 

Yes! Yes! 

[The singing comes nearer and nearer.] 

PETER 

So's Jane a prisoner to me. I'm a prisoner to her. 
We're like birds pinin' all winter in a cage. An' now 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 137 

the winter's over an' gone, an' the time o' the singin' 
o' birds is come. Mary Ellen, come. 

[The dancers rush in, singing the Apple Song to "Come, 
Lasses and Lads", with a mad abandon. They whirl 
about the Hale's Favorite, and suddenly Jane, her hair 
loose, her eyes frenzied, breaks from the circle. The 
singing and dancing stop. She calls wildly to Peter and 
Mary Ellen.] 

JANE 

Come an' dance, Peter. Mary Ellen, come an' 
dance. 



No! No! 



MARY ELLEN 
{Shrinking back.] 



JANE 

[Seizing Mary Ellen s hand, putting it in Peter's, and holding 
it there. Laughing, with a loud, shrill note.] 

Come betwixt Peter and me. That's the way to 

dance, betwixt Peter and me. Come. 

[She dashes into the ring again, drawing them with her, and 
the dance sweeps round the Hale's Favorite.] 

CURTAIN 



ACT III 

Next morning. The woods at daybreak. Pine Tree 
Spring. Mary Ellen in a light, shimmering silk 
dress of an older time, carrying a rose-trimmed 
bonnet by the strings and with a wreath of white 
flowers on her arm, comes down a woodpath 
softly calling. 

MARY ELLEN 

Are you awake ? Peter ! Are you awake ? 

PETER 
[Coming to meet her.] 
Course I'm awake. 

[They meet, kiss, and regard each other happily.} 
D'you sleep? 

MARY ELLEN 

No. Did you? 

PETER 

Never closed my eyes. I watched one star up 
there, an' when it sunk I knew 'twas almost day. 

MARY ELLEN 

I watched the star. 

139 



I40 CHILDREN OF EARTH 



Funny. 
What? 



PETER 
{Laughing a little.] 

MARY ELLEN 

PETER 



Sometimes when I've had to git up to send off 
produce I've wished that fust train was an hour later. 
But now I wish 'twas earlier. 

MARY ELLEN 

I wished there was a train last night, so's we could 
be miles away by daybreak. How long 'fore we start 
from here? 

PETER 

'Most an hour. Can you wait a spell for break- 
fast? 

MARY ELLEN 

I ain't hungry. A drink o' water'll do for me. 

[She kneels at the spring and drinks out of her hand. Peter 
kneels beside her.] 

PETER 

Give me some out o' your hands. 

{He drinks from her hand and they rise and look at each 
other smilingly, like children playing.] 

I might ha' thought to bring you somethin' to eat. 
Or told you to. 

MARY ELLEN 

I had hard work to slip away as 'twas. 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 141 

PETER 

D'you leave any word behind? 

MARY ELLEN 

I left a letter for Aaron. I put it by the lamp. 

PETER 

What d'you say in it? 

MARY ELLEN 

I told him I'd gene v/ith you. I told him to break 
it to Nita an' go straight off, same as they meant to. 
So's they needn't face the neighbors. 

PETER 

The neighbors won't get hold on't yet. 

MARY ELLEN 

O Peter ! Yes, they will. I told Nathan Buell. 

PETER 

When? 

MARY ELLEN 

Last night when I was comin' here. When I got 
to Cynthy Coleman's I thought how Nathan was layin' 
there in her best bed, an' I stepped up to the winder 
an' tapped on the screen, an' I says, "Here's somethin' 
for you." 'Twas his little ring an' chain. An' I laid 



142 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

it on the sill. "I'm goin' off," I says, "with Peter 
Hale." 

PETER 

What d'you do that for? 

MARY ELLEN 

I dunno. I felt so light an' free. An' 'twas moon- 
light, an' you waitin' for me. An' I laughed, 

PETER 

Then he's begun to spread it. But he won't find 
one o' the neighbors'll believe him. 

MARY ELLEN 

Why not? 

PETER 

They wouldn't believe you could. Anybody't had 
lived the kind o' life you have. 

MARY ELLEN 
[Wistfully.] 

Couldn't they, Peter? Couldn't they believe it? 

PETER 

Ye don't see what I mean. Nobody'd understand 
what 'tis to us. They couldn't. I was afraid Aaron'd 
keep ye up talkin'. 

MARY ELLEN 

He did. Till 'most midnight. 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 143 

PETER 

About the land? 

MARY ELLEN 

Yes. 

PETER 

D'you sign it over? 

MARY ELLEN 

Yes. 

PETER 

Let him have his land. We don't want it. 

MARY ELLEN 

Peter, twenty-six years ago this spring father set 
with me one whole night from ten to three, orderin' 
me to give up my will to his. 

PETER 

About Nate Buell. 

MARY ELLEN 

Yes. An' I give up. At three o'clock. I can hear 
that clock strike now. Jest as it struck a robin begun 
to sing. I thought I never should hear a robin ag'in 
without my heart stopped beatin'. But this mornin' 
I heard one. An' I laughed. 

PETER 

When you come up to me here last night the clock 
struck one. D'you notice? 



144 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

MARY ELLEN 

Yes. I wondered if you did. 

PETER 

Course I did. 

MARY ELLEN 

I thought to myself, " 'Tis one o'clock. It's a new 
day." 

PETER 

An' here's the day. 

MARY ELLEN 

An' I ain't the same woman I was yesterday, nor 
you ain't the same man. 

PETER 

I never see you look like this. 

MARY ELLEN 

It's mother's weddin' dress. Here's her bonnet, too. 

PETER 

Put it on. 

[She does it shyly. 1 
A lily in a ring o' roses. That's what you be. 

MARY ELLEN 

Roses always — light anybody up. 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 145 

PETER 

It ain't the roses. 'Tis you. I couldn't see the roses 
last night, could I? But I see your face — under the 
moon. 

MARY ELLEN 
[Laughing , with a timid coquetry and taking off the bonnet?^ 
You didn't hardly speak to me. 

PETER 

I was afraid. There was the moon — an' you so 
wonderful. 

MARY ELLEN 

Did you think I laid there all night — on that blanket 
in the sweet fern? I only stayed there till you'd set- 
tled down. Then I crep' back ag'in. I knew where 
you'd be. Under the pines, on that knoll. 

PETER 

Yes. That's where I was. 

MARY ELLEN 

I crep' up to the other side, an' laid down on the 
pine needles, an' once I 'most laughed out to think 
you didn't know how near I was. 

PETER 

O, yes, I did. 

MARY ELLEN 

You did ? D'you see me ? 



146 CHILDREN or EARTH 

PETER 

No. But I heard you breathe. An' I laid there 
an' drew my breath with yours, an' I says, "That's 
the way it'll always be, breathin' the same breath, 
thinkin' the same thoughts." 

MARY ELLEN 

What'd you think about ? 

PETER 

You. All night long I thought o' you. 

MARY ELLEN 

An' I thought o' you. 

PETER 

An' the new day. 

MARY ELLEN 

Yes. 

PETER 

Not once of what we'd left behind? 

MARY ELLEN 

I did think of Nita. But Nita'll go away where 
folks never heard o' me. Tell me what else you 
thought. 

PETER 

I guess I thought of all the things I've saved for 
you. 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 147 

MARY ELLEN 

What are they, Peter? 

[They sit by the spring.] 

PETER 

Things you never thought of. I didn't know I was 
savin' 'em, but I was. 

MARY ELLEN 

Oh, what were they? 

PETER 

Pretty words, pretty things to do for you. You're 
so fine an' soft an' sweet, you've got to have things 
nicer 'n any woman ever had before. What d'you 
make that wreath for? 

MARY ELLEN 

Somethin' to do 'fore I found you were awake. 

PETER 

You knew how you were goin' to look to me, so 
you made this. 
[He rises, crowns her with it and stands looking down at her.] 

A crown. 

MARY ELLEN 

Mebbe I wa'n't goin' to be beholden to pink roses. 
I took white blooms, so you could see me as I am. 



148 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

PETER 

White blooms. Then you'll be the rose. 

MARY ELLEN 

[She rises.] 

Peter, I never've concerned much about my looks. 

PETER 

If you see yourself as you are now, you couldn't 
help it. There's somethin' come into your eyes — 
since yesterday — an' you're different. O Mary Ellen, 
you're like an apple tree in all her glory. 

MARY ELLEN 

You're different, too. I never see you like this. 

PETER 

It's because I've come alive. 

MARY ELLEN 

'Tain't only you an' me. You've made the whole 
world come alive. You say you've saved things for 
me. An' I've saved things for you. There never's 
been a minute when I could show what's in me waitin' 
to be born. I've kep' it all for you. 

PETER 

An' we'll speak out the thoughts we never've spoke 
before — 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 149 

MARY ELLEN 

Some we never knew we had — 

PETER 

An' we'll laugh — 

MARY ELLEN 

Peter, the birds ! the birds ! I'll dance for you. 

[She dances and then runs to him, shy and breathless, and 
hides her face on his shoulder.} 

PETER 

Mary Ellen! Mary Ellen! I never knew you — 
danced. 

MARY ELLEN 

I ain't for years. One spell I used to dance alone, 
down in my bedroom when f ather'd gone to bed. Once 
he come to the door in his stockin' feet. 
[She runs to the spring.} 

But this ain't under anybody's roof. 'Tis the earth 
an' the sky an' the trees. 

PETER 

'Tis your own house, Mary Ellen. God made it 
for you. 

[Mary Ellen, laughing, bends over the spring. She gives a 
cry, draws back, snatches off the crown and throws it 
from her.] 

What is it, dear? What is it? 



I50 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

MARY ELLEN 

In the spring. 

PETER 

What's in there? 

MARY ELLEN 
[Wildly.] 

No ! no ! don't look. But 'tain't tliere now. My 
face. 

PETER 

Why, yes, you see yourself. That's all. 

MARY ELLEN 

My face. I see my face. 

[Shuddering.] 

There was the crown, an' my face under it. Peter, 
I'm old. 

PETER 

Don't ye look in lyin' Avater when there's my eyes 
you can look into. Don't you tremble so. 

MARY ELLEN 

[Getting hold of herself and laughing in bravado.] 
What if I am — old? What if we were so old we 
didn't even have much time together? Ain't this one 
minute with you worth all the years I've lived? 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 151 

PETER 

Don't iook back. Look forrard. 

[As if humoring a child.] 

Now you listen while I tell you how it's all goin' 
to be. 

[They sit by the spring.] 

MARY ELLEN 

Tell me, Peter. 

PETER 

I know a town where I'm remembered. We'll hire 
a little house, an' there we'll live. 

MARY ELLEN 

Live. In a house with you, 

PETER 

Yes. An' I shall be away all day workin', an' you'll 
be workin' at home — 

MARY ELLEN 

Home. 

PETER 

An' at night I shall open the gate an' come up the 
path — 

MARY ELLEN 

An' I shall hear you comin' — 



152 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

PETER 

An' you'll open the door, an' I shall call. An' you'll 
run down the path — oh, I can see you now betwixt the 
rows o' larkspur — an' I shall have the whole world in 
my arms. 

MARY ELLEN 

Tell more about the house. 

PETER 

[In mock despair.] 
She wants the house. She don't want me. 

MARY ELLEN 

Don't I — my lord? 

PETER 

What make you call me that? 

MARY ELLEN 

They do — in the Bible. It's what you are — my 
lord. 

PETER 

It is her house. An' it's her garden too. 

MARY ELLEN 

I never had much of a garden. Them long beds 
o' mine were 'most too gravelly. 

PETER 

'Twon't be gravel where we're goin'. 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 153 

MARY ELLEN 

I guess I shall want two long beds, anyways, same 
as mine leadin' down to the gate. I admire long beds 
each side the path. 

PETER 

Course you'll have long beds. 

MARY ELLEN 

Come five o'clock, d'you ever notice how nice the sun 
lays acrost the pinks in them two beds o' mine? 

PETER 

It's goin' to lay in every corner o' your new garden 
some part o' the day. There won't be a foot of it 
that ain't a-bloom. Poppies — can't you see 'em blowin' 
in the wind? An' flower-de-luce. An' monkshood, 
straight an' tall. An' hollyhocks. An' pinies, red as 
blood. An' all June the roses. But no rose'll hold a 
candle to you, you'll be so pink an' pretty. 

MARY ELLEN 

I sha'n't be like the roses. 

PETER 

No. You're too delicate an' fine. You're a madonna 
lily, white as snow. 

MARY ELLEN 
[In rapt wonder.'] 
White as snow. 



154 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

PETER 

But sweet. The scent of 'em's almost more'n a 
man can bear. Now you tell. 

MARY ELLEN 
[Timidly.^ 
What shall I? 

PETER 

I've told the garden. You tell the house. 

MARY ELLEN 
[Reflecting.] 
Well ! We've made the garden, ain't we ? 

PETER 

Yes. For you to walk in summer days. 

MARY ELLEN 

For you to look at when we have our suppers on 
the porch. 

PETER 

For us to smell by night. 

MARY ELLEN 

The garden's ours. But the house is yours. 

PETER 

It's your house, Mary Ellen. 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 1 55 

MARY ELLEN 

I dunno's I'd ask anything better'n the old house 
I've took care of so many years — if it had more closet 
room. Or another cupboard by the pantry door. 
What you laughin' at? 

PETER 

Here we are with the world before us an' we can't 
think up anything better'n your old house an' garden. 

MARY ELLEN 

Why, yes, I guess the old house'd do well enough, 
so fur's that goes. I can't think of anything better'n 
livin' there with you — 

[She stops, aghast, and then resolutely dismisses the picture 
she has called up.] 

Anyways, whatever house 'tis, everything I do in it's 
done for you. All day long, while I'm makin' it nice, 
I think of you. The floors can't be clean enough for 
you to walk on. An' the winders can't be clear enough 
for you to see through. An' your clo'es will be liangin' 
round, an' when I go by the nail where your old coat 
is, I'll put my cheek ag'inst it. 

PETER 

An' you'll sing at your work. An' sometimes when 
I'm workin' near the house I shall hear you — 

MARY ELLEN 

Sing ! I ain't sung for years. 



156 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

PETER 

An' I'll say your name, an' drop my tools an' run, 
an' there you'll be, singin'. An' you'll see me, an' 
stop short, an' I'll hold out my arms — 

[Suddenly Jane's voice, strident, dreadful, comes from the 
woods in a mad outcry. Mary Ellen and Peter rise.\ 

MARY ELLEN 

What's that? 

PETER 

You know who 'tis. 

MARY ELLEN 

Jane. 

PETER 

Yes. 

MARY ELLEN 

Where's she goin' ? 

PETER 

Over to your house. 

MARY ELLEN 

By the short cut. 

PETER « 

What's she goin' there for? 

MARY ELLEN 

I thought yesterday she never'd darken them doors 
ag'in. 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 157 



PETER 

Git out o' sight. 

MARY ELLEN 

No, Peter. I sha'n't hide. 



PETER 

Step in an' let her pass. 

MARY ELLEN 

No, Peter, no. What we're doin' we'll do in the 
sight o' man as well as God. 

PETER 

You can't do her no good, an' 'twill do you both 
harm. Hear it. When a woman screams like that 
you'd better stan' from under. 

MARY ELLEN 

Is she — 

PETER 

In liquor? No. But she'll have it 'fore night. I've 
seen her crazed. But not like this. 
[The cry ceases.] 

MARY ELLEN 

She's stopped. 

PETER 

She'll begin ag'in. Mary Ellen, I won't have you 
meet. Ain't you goin' to mind me? If ye don't, I'll 
carry ye by main force. 



158 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

MARY ELLEN 
[Listening.'] 
Hark! There's somebody else. 

PETER 

Which way? 

MARY ELLEN 

There. 

PETER 

Git into the bushes. 

[Jane, zvild and haggard, conies through the woodpath. She 
listens and then runs to the big pine by the spring and 
throws herself upon it, her desperate hands clutching at 
the bark like the claws of a climbitig animal. She listens, 
steps cautiously to the other side of the tree and 
hides. Uncle Eph comes through the wood, absorbed in 
pursuit of her. He listens and then steals up to the tree 
and, with a childish laugh at his own cleverness, discovers 
her.] 

JANE 
[Stepping out front hiding.} 
Ain't I got red o' you ? You've f ollered me all night 
long, an' when I've shook you off there you'd be ag'in, 
buzzin' round my ears. 

EPH 

[/;; crack-brained delight at his own cunning.] 

Time an' ag'in I thought I'd lost ye, ye kep' so still. 

I'd get me laid down, but ye couldn't bust out singin' 

afore I'd rise up an' foller ye. An' every time you'd 

sing, I had to dance. 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 159 

JANE 

You're enough to drive anybody crazy. 

EPH 

[Vaguely troubled.^ 
Don't ye say that word. 

JANE 

What do you s'pose I come out into the woods for, 
if 'twa'n't to be by myself an' git a chance to breathe ? 

EPH 

[Confidentially. } 
Mebbe ye come to — There's a terrible sight o' 
trees in the woods if anybody only had a rope. 
[He goes to the spring and, silting, peers into it.] 

An' there's this water here — though I dunno's it's 
deep enough. 

JANE 

Come, be off. 

EPH 

There's a lot o' ways folks can do it, if they only 
thought so. I wish they would so's I could see. I 
dunno how many years I've wanted to do it, an' I 
dunno how it's done. 

JANE 

Be off. I won't have you taggin' me. 

[She picks up a stone and threatens him.] 



l6o CHILDREN OF EARTH 



EPH 



[He dodges instinctively and then, finding she really isn't 
going to throw, calls in high delight. 1 

You throw an' I'll ketch. 

[Jane drops the stone. He splashes the water with his hand, 
in childish pleasure."] 

Water ! Water ! I'll hold your head under 'f I git 
the courage, an' you can drownd an' I'll see how it's 
done. 

JANE 

Look here ! I'm goin' now, an' if I hear you fol- 
lerin' me — 

EPH 

[Going to her with his wistful air of wanting to "play".] 

Ye goin'? Then ye sing as ye go, an' we'll both 
dance. 

JANE 

I can't dance. 

EPH 

Then you sing for me. 

JANE 

I can't sing. 

EPH 

Wa'n't ye singin' jest now? 

JANE 

Yes. If you call it that. 

[Her voice breaking, she goes tu the pine and cowers 
against it.] 

To keep from screamin'. 



CHILDREN OF EARTH i6l 

EPH- 

Oh, ye mustn't scream. 

JANE 
Why not? 

EPH 

If ye scream, they'll say ye're crazy, an' the boys'll 
run after ye — the little devils — an' the womenfolks'll 
say, Poor soul ! No, don't ye scream. 

JANE 

If you felt as I do, you'd have to scream. 

{Leaving the pine, picking up the wreath and speaking 
absently to herself.] 
Look at this. 

EPH 

What is it ? A ring-a-round-a-rosy ! 

JANE 

Some girl made it, an' wore it on her head. An' 
she's got everything before her. An' here be I, an' 
what have I got before me? 

[She throws it down.] 

EPH 
I dunno what ye mean. 

JANE 

Course ye don't. D'ye s'pose I could open my lips 
to anybody 't did know? 



l62 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

EPH 

D'ye s'pose ye've got a broken heart? 

JANE 

No. I've got no heart to break. I've drowned it in 
liquor. That's what I've done. It's drownded. 

[She returns to the pine and stands leaning against it, ab- 
sorbed in her thoughts and looking down into the spring.] 

EPH 
[Wisely.] 
Then if ye ain't got no heart, there can't nothin' 
hurt ye. 

[He picks up the wreath.] 

JANE 

Can't it? 

EPH 

So you put on the ring-a-round-a-rosy. 

JANE 

No. 

EPH 

An' we'll dance. 

JANE 

No. 

EPH 

An' sing — 

JANE 

No, I tell you, no. 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 163 

EPH 

{Dropping the wreath in a wistful discontent.] 
If ye won't dance nor sing, what will ye do ? 

JANE 

I dunno what I'm goin' to do. Git drunk — or kill 
myself. 

EPH 
[Eagerly.] 

That's the talk ! That's what I said. Kill yourself. 
You do it, an' I'll see how it's done. I've been kind o' 
'fraid to do it, unless I knew — the rules. An' here's 
suthin' for you to do it with. 

[He takes out a big clasp knife and opens it] 

It's my knife. I was goin' to cut rushes to make me 
a hat. 

[He offers it to her persuasively.] 

JANE 

You put that back in your pocket. Don't ye offer 
it to me. 

EPH 

You do it. You do it. 

[He lays it in her hand. The bushes move where Peter is 
on guard.] 

JANE 

[Looking at the knife in an unwilling fascination,] 
Is it sharp? 



l64 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

EPH 

God sakes ! I guess 'tis. 

JANE 

Would it cut right through ? 

EPH 

Bone an' all. You try it. On your broken heart. 
If ye don't make out, 'twon't do ye no hurt. There's 
no wuth to a broken heart. Here, I guess you better 
give me suthin' to bind over my eyes, so's I sha'n't see 
ye fall. 

[He retreats from her, shielding his eyes with his lifted arm.] 

[Jane comes awake, throws the knife to the ground, and 

sinks at the foot of the tree in a violent sobbing.] 

JANE 

No! no! I can't. I can't. 

EPH 
[Aggrieved, picking up his knife and trying the edge.] 

Well, ye needn't dull up my good knife. Now what 
ye cryin' for? If ye'd put the knife into ye, ye couldn't 
cry no more nor what ye're cryin' now. 

JANE 

[Rising to her knees.] 

God A'mighty ! what am I doin' here, anyway? 
I've got to go back an' git Barstow's breakfast. 
[She rises.] 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 165 

EPH 
[Proffering the knife.] 
You do it. 

JANE 
[She brushes off her dress and pats her hair into decency,} 
I can't, I tell ye. I've got to go an' git breakfast. 

EPH 

Well, if you're goin', you sing as ye go, an' le'me 
dance. 

JANE 

I sha'n't sing no more. 

[She goes off by a woodpath and Uncle Eph, after a mo- 
ment's puzzled consideration, trots happily after her.] 
[Peter and Mary Ellen come out from hiding.] 

MARY ELLEN 

D'you ever see her cry like that? 

PETER 

No. She ain't a cryin' woman. 

MARY ELLEN 

She ain't looked so either. I dunno's I ever see her 
look so. 

PETER 

Liquor'll be the next thing. 

MARY ELLEN 

She's bound for it now. 



1 66 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

PETER 

Yes. 

MARY ELLEN 

After she's got breakfast. D'you hear that? 

PETER 

Yes. 

MARY ELLEN 

Then she'll feel free to wander away. An' drink. 
How she cried ! 

PETER 

God! 

MARY ELLEN 

D'you tell her last night? 

PETER 

Yes. 

MARY ELLEN 

What'd she say? 

PETER 

Not one word. 

MARY ELLEN 

An' now she's goin' to git breakfast. I hope she'll 
have the house shut up 'fore Nathan's there. I never 
thought — maybe Nita'll hear it first from him. 

PETER 

You think Jane'Il stay an' shut the house? 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 167 

MARY ELLEN 

She's a real caretaker. 

[Ahsently.'\ 
I hope she'll put Trot out. 

PETER 

The cat'll be all right. 

MARY ELLEN 

Her kittens are up in the shed chamber. I guess 
Jane'd remember to leave the door. 

PETER 

My God ! Do you know what we're doin' ? We're 
standin' here talkin' about the chores, an' it's daylight 
— an' we're goin' off together — 

MARY ELLEN 

An' Jane wants to git drunk — or kill herself — but 
she's gone back to git breakfast. 

PETER 

Do you think for a minute this thing means to her 
what it does to us ? 

MARY ELLEN 

No. 



1 68 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

PETER 

Do you think she wants to kill herself because 
she's — left behind ? 

MARY ELLEN 

No. Not that. But it's everything together. It's 
her cravin', like a devil inside her. An' there was you 
an' me to fight the devil, an' we're gone. An' she's 
alone. But she's hoein' out her row. 

PETER 

What's the matter with us ? Nothin' looks the same. 

MARY ELLEN 

Even this place don't look the same. The flowers 
don't. 

{She snatches up the wreath, tears it apart, and throws it 
into the spring.] 

PETER 

What you doin' with that ? 

MARY ELLEN 

Buryin' it where nobody'll see it die, an' where I 
sha'n't see it. Even that looks different. 

PETER 

Do I — look different? 

MARY EI.LEN 

Do I? 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 169 

PETER 

Don't you love me? 

MARY ELLEN 

Dearer'n my life. 

PETER 

Don't you want to be with me ? 

MARY ELLEN 

Not that way, the way we thought. 

PETER 

Don't you want our house? 

MARY ELLEN 

Not that way. 

PETER 

Nor the garden? An' you waitin' at the gate? 

MARY ELLEN 

Not if we have to walk over her to git it. 

PETER 

The first step's taken. We have walked over her. 

MARY ELLEN 

Yes. We've stepped right on her an' left her in the 
dust. An' what's she done? She's got up, all bruised 
an' bleedin', an' gone to do the work she said she'd do. 



170 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

PETER 

What's bruised her? She don't fee! to me as a 
woman feels to a man. 

MARY ELLEN 

She can't. The Uquor's killed it out of her. But 
she's got somethin' left. She stan's by. An' so must 
we. 

PETER 

Have I got to see you go back there an' give up your 
will to other folks? 

MARY ELLEN 

'Tis because I've got a will I'm goin'. 

PETER 

To see you work an' slave — 

MARY ELLEN 

The work's nothin'. 

PETER 

Never to have your life — 

MARY ELLEN 

Why, Peter, we've both had our life. This one day. 

PETER 

Spring. An' no time for ripenin'. O my God! 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 171 

MARY ELLEN 

Don't you tell me the world ain't mine as much as 't 
was an hour ago. An' yours. Why, Peter, here we 
be, free to go either way we say. Which way we 
goin' ? You're the man. You've got to be the strong- 
est. 

PETER 

Yes. I could make you go — by main force, anyway. 

[They look each other in the eyes, Peter in a fierce passion, 
Mary Ellen unyieldingly.] 

MARY ELLEN 

Which way we goin'? 

[She waits for him to answer.] 
Ain't we goin' back ? 

PETER 

[With a long breath.] 
Yes. 

[They turn and he stops short.] 
We can't go back. 

MARY ELLEN 

Why can't we? 

PETER 

There's Nate Buell. He's told folks. 

MARY ELLEN 

O my Lord! 

PETER 

You sha'n't face it. I won't let you. 



172 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

MARY ELLEN 

It never'll be forgotten, so long as we live — nor 
after. How Mary Ellen Barstow run away. 

PETER 

Damn 'em. 

MARY ELLEN 

They'll p'int us out to strangers. In the Meetin* 
House. "That was the woman that run away." 

PETER 

'Twon't mean to them what it does to us. 



MARY ELLEN 

No. 'Twill mean — the worst. 

PETER 

They'll make it hell for you. 

MARY ELLEN 

Yes. There'd be nothin' like it 

PETER 

You can't face it. Nor I for you. 

MARY ELLEN 

Nor I for you. 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 173 

PETER 

That settles it. Come. 

{They turn to go, hut Mary Ellen stops.] 

MARY ELLEN 

But Jane! Jane's facin' it. She's gone back there 
— ^to git breakfast. Peter, we're goin' back. 

PETER 
[After a moment's struggling thought.] 

Yes, we're goin' back. 

[They turn to the homeward path and go oif, Mary Ellen 
leading.] 



CURTAIN 



ACT IV 

The same morning a little later, in the Barstow sitting- 
room. The shutters are still closed and the lamp is 
on the table. Near the lamp is Mary Ellen's 
note. The basket of pewter is by the sideboard, on 
the floor. Jane comes in from the kitchen, goes to 
Mary Ellen's bedroom door, listens, opens it a 
crack and closes it. She goes to the table to take 
the lamp to the sideboard, sees Mary Ellen's 
note, looks at it and puts it in her pocket. As she 
is setting the lamp on the sideboard a whistle is 
heard outside. Jane goes out to the kitchen. 
Again the whistle outside and Anita comes in 
from the hall, whistling an answer. She carries 
a charming negligee over her arm. She runs to 
the window and opens the shutter a little. 

ANITA 

That you, Adam ? 

ADAM 
[His tone is curt and anxious.] 
Yes. 

ANITA 

I heard you whistling under my window. I came 
as quick as I could. 

175 



176 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

ADAM 

I thought you'd know that whistle. 

ANITA 

Did you mean it for a serenade? Didn't you hear 
me answer? I couldn't believe you'd let me go with- 
out saying good-bye. 

ADAM 

Can I come in ? 

ANITA 

I'm not quite dressed. 

[She slips on the negligee over her dress to make herself as 
pretty as possible.] 

Do you know what time it is? I came very near 
seeing the sun rise. 

ADAM 

Is your father up ? 

ANITA 

Yes. Dressing. 

ADAM 

Hurry, Nita. Let me in. 

ANITA 

Why, how serious we are ! Anything the matter? 

ADAM 

Let me in, Nita. I've got to see you before your 
father comes. 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 177 

ANITA 

Something is the matter. 

ADAM 

Yes. 

ANITA 

{In evident disappointment she takes ofF the negligee and lays 
it OH the table by the door.] 

You sound as if it was — business. 

ADAM 

I'm not fooling now. Let me in. 

[She runs to the outer door and lets him in. He is grave 
and in a high state of tension.] 

I want you to get your father away on the 6 :20. 

ANITA 

We're going, anyway. Mrs. Coleman's coming 
for us. 

ADAM 

You mustn't wait for that. Tell your father she's 
going to be late and you've both got to walk bver there. 
I'll carry your bags. 

ANITA 

We haven't had breakfast. 

ADAM 

He'll have to go without his breakfast. 



178 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

ANITA 

Aunt Mary Ellen wouldn't let him. 

ADAM 

Anita, do you trust me enough to do just what I 
tell you? 

ANITA 

Yes. What's happened, Adam? 

ADAM 

Peter's gone.- 

ANITA 

Peter? Gone where? 

ADAM 

God knows. Gone for good. 

ANITA 

Left the farm? 

ADAM 

Yes. 

ANITA 

When did you know? 

ADAM 

Last night. Between twelve and one. Buell waked 
me — 

ANITA 

Mr. Buell? 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 179 

ADAM 

Waked me, hammering on the door. There he 
stood, primed. Said Pete had run off. I told him to 
go back to bed. He wouldn't. Swore Pete wasn't on 
the place. 

ANITA 

And wasn't he? 

ADAM 

No. Nor Jane. 

ANITA 

Then they'd gone together. 

ADAM 

Not together. Wherever she is, it's not with him. 
He's gone and left her. I'm afraid he's left her for 
good. 

ANITA 

You mean — deserted her ? How dreadful ! But you 
can't wonder. How did Mr. Buell know? 

ADAM 

Never mind. He knew. But I've got to keep him 
from telling anybody else. 

ANITA 

Where is he? 

ADAM 

I made him stay up in my room while I dressed. 
Locked him in with me. Talked at him — blue streak. 



l8o CHILDREN OF EARTH 

Anything to tire him out. Ten minutes ago he dozed 
off, Tlien I crept out, locked him in, locked the out- 
side door and sprinted for here. And there's half a 
chance he won't get out till we've rushed your father 
off. 

ANITA 

But if you've locked him in — 

ADAM 

Oh, he'll break jail. It'll take him a minute or two, 
but once he's out he'll be here like a shot. Now call 
your father. 

ANITA 

What's father got to do with it? 

ADAM 

Xita. if Pete's gone, your Aunt Mary Ellen's gone 
with him, Buell knows. That's why he was trailing 
Pete, 

ANITA 

Aunt Mary Ellen? What do you mean? 

ADAM 

I knew about it yesterday. They'd got it planned. 
Pete told me. 

ANITA 

Adam, you mustn't say a thing like that. 



CHILDREN OF EARTH i8l 

ADAM 

They planned it. He told me so. But I didn't really 
take it in. 

ANITA 

Aunt Mary Ellen ? Oh, you're perfectly crazy. 

ADAM 

You needn't believe it. I don't want you to. All 
I want you to do is to get your father away from here 
before Buell sees him. 

ANITA 

It's that horrible man. She'd promised to marry 
him and she was beside herself. She's got Peter to 
take her away. 

ADAM 

I'm afraid that's only half the story. Nita, they're 
in love. 

ANITA 

Aunt Mary Ellen ! I won't believe it. 

[She runs to the bedroom door, calling.] 
Aunt Mary Ellen! 

ADAM 
[Stopping her.] 
Sh! Don't let your father know. Get him away. 
Then I'll hunt for them. 

ANITA 

He won't go without seeing her. 



l82 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

ADAM 

Make him. 

ANITA 

What could I tell him ? 

ADAM 

Tell him — she's been called away. 

ANITA 

Do you suppose I'd leave this house without know- 
ing where Aunt Mary Ellen is? And do you believe 
I think for a minute she's not in there? 

ADAM 

You're afraid she isn't. If you weren't you'd be in 

there like a shot. 

[She hesitates and goes to him in a momentary doubt and 
terror.] 

Open the door, Nita. Get it over. 

{She leaves him and gets herself in hand.} 

Wait. If you find her bed hasn't been slept in, will 
you do what I tell you, bluff your father, bluff Buell 
if you have to, and get them away? It's a big game 
of bluff from now on. Understand? 

ANITA 

[Going to the bedroom door.} 
Yes. 

ADAM 

Now. 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 183 

ANITA 
[Knocking softly.] 
Aunt Mary Ellen! 

ADAM 

Sh ! there's your father. 

[Anita leaves the bedroom door and Adam opens the hall 
door to let in Aaron, laden with bags and wraps.] 

AARON 
[As he enters, ungraciously to Adam.] 
Well, young man, you round here? You're out 
early. 

[To Anita.] 
You left your bag up in your room. Here's your 
coat an' hat. Where's your aunt ? 

ANITA 

We've got to hurry, father, 

[She begins putting on her coat and hat.] 

ADAM 

Yes, you're to walk over to the Colemans' and start 
from there. 

[He takes up the bags.] 
These all, Mr. Barstow ? 

AARON 

You set them bags down. 

[To Anita.] 
Where's Mary Ellen ? 

[Adam sets down the bags.] 



l84 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

ANITA 

Don't you understand, father? We've got to walk 
over to the Colemans'. That's why we're starting now. 
Come. 

AARON 

Why ain't breakfast on the table? 

ADAM 

There's a dining car on your train, Mr. Barstow. 

AARON 
[To Anita.] 

What's your aunt mean by sendin' me out o' this 
house without my breakfast? 
[He is on his way to the kitchen door when Anita stops hint.] 

ANITA 

Father, Aunt Mary Ellen — isn't here. 

AARON 

Ain't here? Where is she? 

[Nathan, trembling with rage and haste, comes in at the hall 
door.] 

NATHAN 

[Launching his wrath at Adam.] 

Ye fastened me in, did ye, like a dumb beast? Ye 

thought I was too infirm to climb clown over the shed 

roof. Ye left me asleep, did ye ? Well, you're the one 

'twas left. Aaron Barstow, Mary Ellen's gone off. 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 185 

AARON 

Gone off ? She's goin' with us. 

[To Anita.'] 
Ain't she packed her bag? 
[He starts toward the bedroom door, but Anita detains him.\ 

ANITA 

Father ! 

NATHAN 

Goin' with you ! That's a good one. She's gone all 
right. But 'tain't with you. 

AARON 

Gone? 

NATHAN 

Yes, gone. I see her go. 

AARON 

When'd she go? 

NATHAN 

Last night. 

AARON 

Why, she set here with me till — 

NATHAN 

'Twixt twelve an' one suthin' come tappin' on my 
screen. An' then I heerd a voice, an' 'twas Mary 
Ellen's voice an' it says, "I'm goin' off." 



l86 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

AARON 

Oh, you were asleep an' dreamin'. 

NATHAN 

I got up an' looked out the winder an' there she 
was slippin' through the moonlight like a shadder. 
'Twas Mary Ellen. I'd known her amongst a thou- 
sand. 

ANITA 

You didn't know her yesterday, Mr. Buell. What 
if it was I you saw — 

NATHAN 

Ye can't fool me. She run off last night. She's 
gone. An' she called out to me, "I'm goin' off with 
Peter Hale." 

AARON 

Nate, you're a born fool. 

NATHAN 

She was out of her head over that feller. D'you 
ever hear a Christian woman talk as she did down in 
his yard no longer ago'n yesterday? 

ADAM 

Oh, Mr. Buell! 

NATHAN 

[To Adam.] 
Yes, an' you knew it, too. You locked me in to give 
'em time. Smooth-tongued devils, both on ye ! 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 187 

[To Aaron.] 

Mary Ellen's run off, an' she's run off with Peter 

Hale. If she ain't with him, where is he? He's gone. 

You ask this smart Alec here that locks folks up an' 

lets 'em climb down over shed roofs. He can't deny it. 

AARON 
[To Adam.] 
Where is Hale? 

ADAM 

Couldn't say, Mr. Barstow. 

NATHAN 

Mary Ellen's run off, an' she's run off with Peter 
Hale. Here, ain't that Mary Ellen's bedroom? Look 
in there an' see if the bed's been slep' in. She ain't 
been there all night long. 

ANITA 

You're not going into Aunt Mary Ellen's room. 

[She draws a chair before the bedroom door and seats herself 
in it.] 

NATHAN 

If she ain't slep' in that room, that tells the whole 
story. 

ANITA 

Nobody is going to open the door of Aunt Mary 
Ellen's room. 



l88 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

AARON 

Git up, Nita. 

ANITA 

Father, I won't have him peering in there. What is 
it to him where Aunt Mary Ellen is? 

[She rises, but still stands before her barricade.] 

He hasn't been here a day, and we all hate him, 
every one of us. And if she's hidden herself away 
from him, I don't blame her. It's what any woman 
would do. 

AARON 

Nita, you come away from there. 



ANITA 

No, father, that man sha'n't look inside Aunt Mary 
Ellen's room. 

AARON 

Nita ! 

[Jane comes in from the kitchen and goes directly to the 
bedroom door, where Anita instinctively gives place to 
her.] 

JANE 

What you crowded round that door for, like a par- 
cel o' wolves ? What do you think you're goin' to find ? 
If you want to know anything, you come to me. 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 189 



AARON 

Ah! 

[To Nathan.] 
She's the one. Hale's wife ! 

[To Jane.] 
Where's my sister? 

JANE 

Gone out. 

AARON 

Where? 

JANE 

To one o' the neighbors. 

AARON 

How'd ye know? 

JANE 

She told me. 

AARON 

Where'd ye see her ? 

JANE 

Here. 



In this room? 
Yes. 

When was it? 



NATHAN 



JANE 



NATHAN 



JANE 

Half an hour ago — twenty minutes — maybe. 



190 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

NATHAN 

{Trying to readjust his point of view.'] 
Then she come back. 

JANE 

Come back from where ? She come out o' her bed- 
room here. 

NATHAN 
{Taking the cross-examination on himself.] 
Jest up, was she ? 

JANE 

Yes. 

NATHAN 

Slep' there last night, did she, same as usual? 

JANE 

Yes. 

NATHAN 

In all night? 

JANE 

Yes. 

NATHAN 

What makes ye think so? 

JANE 

I was here last night myself. 

NATHAN 

All night? 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 191 







JANE 


Yes. 




NATHAN 


Where? 




JANE 


Here. In this 


room. 






NATHAN 


How long 


d'ye stay here? 



JANE 

All night, I told ye. 

NATHAN 

Set up all night. 

AARON 

That's a likely story. What'd ye do that for? 

JANE 

I didn't want to disturb folks, goin' upstairs. I come 
in late. 

AARON 

Ye didn't come in 'fore midnight. I locked the 
doors myself as the clock struck twelve. 

JANE 

'Twas after twelve, 

NATHAN 

How much after? 



192 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

JANE 
Five minutes — maybe ten. 

AARON 

The doors were locked. How'd you git in? 

JANE 

Mary Ellen let me in. 

NATHAN 

Got up out o' bed, did she, an' let you in? 

JANE 

Yes. 

NATHAN 

'Twixt twelve an' one. 



JANE 

Yes. 

AARON 
{To Nathan.] 

If she set here all night, Mary Ellen couldn't ha' got 
out 'thout her knowin' it. 



NATHAN 

Unless she went by the winder. 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 193 

JANE 

[In momentary dismay.] 
The winder! 

[Recovering herself in triumph.] 
The screen's nailed in. 

NATHAN 

Aaron, we've got to see whether that bed's been slep' 
in. If it ain't, it's because Mary Ellen no sooner got 
red o' you than she put for the road. 
[To Jane.] 

You come away from that door, or I'll make ye. 

ADAM 

Let her alone, Buell. 

AARON 
[To Jane.] 
Step away from the door. 

ANITA 

Father, don't. 

NATHAN 
[Pointing a lean forefinger at Anita and Jane.] 
Aaron, them two's in league together. That bed 
ain't been slep' in an' they know it. 

AARON 

[To Jane.] 
Come. I don't want nobody to lay hands on ye, but 
ye've got to git away from that door. 



194 CHILDREN OF EARTH 



JANE 

S'pose I do git away from the door. S'pose ye 
find the bed made up. D'ye think ye'll be much bet- 
ter off? Then look. 

[She throws open the door and walks stolidly away to the 
table.] 

NATHAN 

Aha! What'd I tell ye? Quilt all spread up an' a 
clean piller case an' not a wrinkle in it. What d'ye 
think now? 

JANE 
[ Triumphan tly. ] 
I made the bed. 

AARON 

When? 

JANE 

Jest now. 

AARON 

Mebbe she did, Nathan. Ye can't prove it. 

NATHAN 

Mebbe I can't. 

[To Jane.] 
You take your oath you come into this house 'twixt 
twelve an' one ? 

JANE 

Yes. 

NATHAN 

An' Mary Ellen let you in. 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 195 

JANE 

Yes. 

NATHAN 

What'd she do then ? 

JANE 

Went back to bed. 

NATHAN 

An' you set here all night. 

JANE 

Yes. Till half an hour ago. 

NATHAN 
{With sudden violence.'] 
You're lyin'. Ye've lied right through. 

JANE 
[With answering violence.] 
Don't you tell me I lie. 

NATHAN 

I can prove it. Mary Ellen was in the road last 
night. I see her an' she spoke to me. 

AARON 

Ye dreamed that, Nate. 



196 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

JANE 
{JeeringlyJ\ 
Aha ! Who's lyin' now ? 

NATHAN 

[Taking out the ring and chain."] 

Is this a dream? She laid it on my winder sill an' 

she says, "Here's suthin' for ye." 'Twas the ring I 

give her — an' the chain. You know it, Aaron. Years 

ago. 

AARON 

[To Jane.] 
You've been lyin'. 

NATHAN 

Lyin'. As fast as she could speak. Look at her 
face. Look at her face. 

[Jane covers her face with her hands.] 

ANITA 
Father! She's been crying. 

AARON 

[To Jane.] , 

What d'ye cry for? 

NATHAN 
[With biting emphasis.] 
She cried because she knows it. Her husband's run 
off with Mary Ellen Barstow. 

[Jane staggers and catches at a chair to steady herself.] 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 197 

AARON 

[To Jane.] 
Godfrey! You ain't been drinkin'? 

JANE 
[Laughing wildly.] 
Drinkin' ! That's it. Drinkin' ! Drinkin' ! The 
cravin' come on me last night. An' Mary Ellen see it. 
An' she follered me. An' she got Peter, an' they both 
follered me. An' they follered me all night. All night 
long they follered me up an' down an' through the 
mist. But I give 'em the slip. I give 'em the slip. 

AARON 

What d'ye lie for, then ? 

JANE 

D'ye think I'd owned it if he hadn't trapped me? 
If I could throw you two off the track, don't you think 
I'd ruther lie than eat? Ye thought ye had her, 
didn't ye? Thought ye'd git her in the trap? But 
it's me you've trapped, an' if ye want the truth I'll 
spit it at ye. I'm a drinkin' woman, an' Mary Ellen 
knows it, an' she's lookin' for me now, mebbe miles 
away. An' if she never comes back, it's no more'n 
you two deserve. An' I don't stay in this house an- 
other minute. I'm goin' off after her. 

[She turns, glances from the zvindow, and cries out in wild 
relief.] 



198 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

They're comin'! They're comin'! There's Peter. 
There they be. 

[She runs to the hall door to meet them.] 

NATHAN 
[Peering from the wtndow.] 
Heads as high as ninety. 

JANE 

[At the hall door, to Peter and Mary Ellen.] 

They ain't gone yet. You're jest in time. 

[Peter and Mary Ellen come in, and Jane continues, with 
meaning emphasis.] 

I've told 'em the whole story. I've told 'em how 
you thought I was off after liquor, an' how you hunted 
for me all night long. I've said all there is to say. 

[She takes the letter from her pocket and gives it to Mary 
Ellen.] 

Here. I found it. 

[She goes out to the kitchen.] 

AARON 
[Stolidly relieved at having the commotion over.] 
Well, Mary Ellen, you've got back. 

ANITA 

[Going to Mary Ellen, kissing her, and touching the wed- 
ding dress caressingly.] 
Pretty. 

ADAM 
[To Peter.] 
^VelI, old man. 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 



199 



NATHAN 

Mary Ellen, ye've been out all night, an' it's well 
ye've got back as ye have. Ye can't go kickin' over the 
traces like that 'thout causin' talk. 

PETER 

[Striding forward and confronting hint.] 
Buell, you look here. An' listen. If there is any 
talk I shall know where it comes from, an' deal with 
you accordin'. Understand me? I guess you under- 
stand. 

[Peter goes out at the hall door.] 

NATHAN 
[Cringing momentarily.] 
I didn't mean no harm. I was goin' to overlook it 
anyways. 

[Nathan turns to Mary Ellen.] 
Now I'm goin' to the street an' have that deed made 
out. 

[He becomes aware of the ring and chain in his hand and 
holds them up before her.] 

What d'ye mean by that? 

MARY ELLEN 

Keep it, Nathan. I don't love you. Nor you don't 
love me. 'Twas all the land. 

NATHAN 

Love? What d'ye expect, at our age? But a 
promise is a promise. An' land is land. And I 



200 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

hereby lay my commands on ye, as my wife that is 
to be, that ye keep in your name all lots an' passels 
o' land that's standin' in your name now. 

MARY ELLEN 

You're too late, Nathan. I've signed it all away. 

NATHAN 
{Anguished.] 

Ye ain't gone an' stripped yourself of all that land 
—acre upon acre o' wood an' tillage — 

MARY ELLEN 

Every inch of it. But I've got the paper that binds 
you to sell me Mill Road Farm. 

NATHAN 

Then for God's sake, xA^aron, you let her have that. 
Let her have Mill Road Farm. Advance her the 
money, Aaron. Give it to her right out. She's your 
own sister, Aaron. Only think o' that. 

MARY ELLEN 

Nathan, if he did I shouldn't take it. 

NATHAN 

Then that's the last word I've got to say. Marry ye? 
I wouldn't marry ye if ye should beseech me to. You 
ain't a Christian woman. 

[He goes out at the hall door, shaking with righteous 
indignation.] 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 201 

AARON 

If ever I see two such fools — all this hurrah-boys 
over nothin'. Godfrey! Betwixt you an' that Hale 
woman an' Cynthy Barstow laggin' behind, I ain't got 
time to swaller down a cup o' coffee. Mary Ellen, you 
put on your bunnit, an' come along jest as you be. 

{He goes to the desk and begins a final rearrangement of 
his hag.] 

MARY ELLEN 

Go — with you? 

\She lifts the basket of pewter to the table and begins un- 
wrapping the pewter and setting it back in its old place 
on the shelf.] 

AARON 

That's what I said. 

ADAM 
{At the window.] 
Here's Cynthia Coleman with the team. She's on 
time, after all. 

AARON 
{To Mary Ellen, who is still busy with the pewter.] 
What ye 'bout there? 

MARY ELLEN 

I'm puttin' gran'mother's pewter back on the shelves 
where it belongs. 



202 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

AARON 

Godfrey ! your voice sounded for all the world like 
mother's that time father licked me for givin' away my 
five cents. 

MARY ELLEN 

T guess mother'd like to have me keep my pewter. 
Aaron, my mind's made up. 

AARON 

Well, you think it over. You'll feel different by 
to-morrer. 

{Cynthia comes in at the hall door.] 
[Mary Ellen and Anita go off to Mary Ellen's bedroom for 
last words.] 

CYNTHIA 

You ready, folks? 

ADAM 

I'll put these in the carry-all. 

[He carries out the bags.] 

AARON 
[To Cynthia.] 
Thought you were goin' to be late. 

CYNTHIA 
[Running over with talk to which nobody ever listens.] 
I'm a mite early, if anything. Seems's if everything's 
happenin' to once. I dunno which way to turn. I've 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 203 

been at it sence daybreak, scourin' tins an' lookin' 
over things up attic — never see so many old daguerreo- 
types — didn't know there was so many in the world — • 
an' squash seeds — an' foot-warmers — an' old clo'es. 
We've got a swarm o' bees to dispose of. Aaron, I 
wonder'f you could make use of a swarm o' bees? 
No, I s'pose not, livin' in the city so. Well, I'll be 
climbin' in. 

{She hurries out at the hall door as Adam enters.'] 
[Mary Ellen and Anita come back from the bedroom.] 

AARON 

Godfrey ! this place is hornets' nest enough for me. 
Well, good-bye, Mary Ellen. 

MARY ELLEN 

Good-bye, Aaron. 

[Aaron goes out, his mind already on "business". Anita, 
without a look at Adam, follows.] 

MARY ELLEN 

{To Adam.] 

I'm terrible sorry, Adam, she's gone off like this. 

ADAM 

Not even said good-bye. 

{In deep depression, he sits near the desk, his back to the 
door.] 

[Anita, mischievous and provocative, comes softly back, 
carrying her bag. She takes the negligee from the little 
table and carries it, with the bag, to the large table.] 



204 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

ANITA 

Adam! 

[Adam, in a momentary hopefulness, gets up and stands 
looking at her imploringly. She is carefully folding the 
garment for her bag.] 

Do you know why this isn't in my bag? 

ADAM 

No. 

ANITA 

Well, you never will. There's a lot of things you 
never'll know, Adam. 

MARY ELLEN 

Speak up, Adam. Don't let her go like this. 
[She turns to leave them.] 

ANITA 

Oh ! don't leave us alone, Aunt ]\iary Ellen ! Please ! 

[Afary Ellen smilingly goes off to her bedroom, and Anita, 
calling, continues to address her.] 

He's nothing to say to me anybody couldn't hear. It 
takes an audience to bring him out. He can speak 
very nicely before a crowd. He proposed yesterday — 
to father. And Mr. Buell was there and Mrs. Coleman 
was there and — oh, I don't know how many. And — 
oh, yes, I was there too. 

ADAM 
[Aware that he is being chaffed, yet unequal to it.] 
Nita! 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 205 

ANITA 

Aunt Mary Ellen! 

[Mary Ellen conies from her bedroom and Anita carries the 
negligee to her.] 

I don't believe I'll take this after all. If I leave it, 
I may have to come back for it. I might come Tues- 
day. 

ADAM 
[In reviving hope.] 
Tuesday ? 

ANITA 
[To Mary Ellen, and carefully ignoring Adam.] 
Next Tuesday. That's father's busy day. To get 
this. And to see you, Aunt Mary Ellen. 

MARY ELLEN 

That's a good girl. 

[She takes the garment into her bedroom.] 

ADAM 

Tuesday? Mayn't I come? 

ANITA 

What's the use ? Mr. Buell won't be here and father 
won't be here. 

[Calling.] 
Next Tuesday, Aunt Mary Ellen. Don't forget. 



206 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

AARON 
{Calling from the carry-all.] 
Come, Nita. 

ADAM 

Mayn't I ride down to the station ? 

ANITA 

There's an extra seat — with father. 

[She goes out laughing, and Adam, beginning at last to under- 
stand, runs after her.] 

[Mary Ellen comes from her bedroom and goes at once 
toward the door to the kitchen. Jane opens the door 
and comes in 'juith a tray of dishes. For a moment they 
regard each other gravely, and then Jane sets the tray 
on the table, spreads the cloth and arranges cups and 
plates.] 

MARY ELLEN 

Jane, what are we goin' to say to one another? 

JANE 

You don't need to say anything. 

MARY ELLEN 

All these months I thought I was takin' care o' 
you, an' now you've took care o' me. You give up 
your good name to save mine. 

JANE 

I ain't got any good name. 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 207 

MARY ELLEN 

STou Stood by me when you might ha' thought the 
worst. 

JANE 

I know what you be. 

MARY ELLEN 

But you've got to know the whole. He's dearer'n 
my life to me. I've told him so. It's true. An' I 
ain't sorry I went — I'm glad. An' I shall be glad all 
the days o' my life — glad I went an' glad I came back. 

JANE 

That's right. You be glad. You ain't dead like 
me. He an' I are as dead to one another as if we're 
underground. An' so it's been for years. 

MARY ELLEN 

Jane, last night somethin' took me off the earth 
an' set me in the heavens. An' then I see the earth 
as 'twas meant to be — an' how we've got to live on 
it an' not do wrong. 

JANE 

I guess you won't do — any hurt, 

MARY ELLEN 

I sha'n't forget how the heavens look. I sha'n't 
stop bein' happy. But some way or another the rest 
o' my life's goin' to be for you — an' him. And how 
it's goin' to be — whether I'd ought to go away some- 



2o8 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

wheres or stay right on here — I dunno yet. You're 
the one to tell. 

JANE 

. [In alarm.] 
You ain't goin' away? 

MARY ELLEN 

Jane, what be I goin' to do? You tell me. 

JANE 

Do you know what I want? I didn't know last 
night, but I know now. To have you two back ag'in. 
You stay right here in this house an' let me stay 
with you. An' we'll work. An' you'll keep the devil 
out o' me. An' Peter Hale'll come here an' eat. An' 
I'll see to the house down there. An' that's all. 

MARY ELLEN 

Is that what you want, too ? 

JANE 

That's all I want. Here. With you. Quiet. Touch 
me. 

[She stretches out her hand timidly and imploringly, and 
Mary Ellen takes it and puts it to her cheek. But Jane 
snatches Mary Ellen's hand to her lips and kisses it. 
Then in a full, almost happy voice.] 

Now I'll make some new coffee. 

[She goes out to the kitchen, and Mary Ellen sinks into a 

chair and sits there musing.] 

[Peter comes in at the hall door.] 



CHILDREN OF EARTH 209 

PETER 

You been talkin' ? 

MARY ELLEN 

Yes. 

PETER 

She's a good woman. 

MARY ELLEN 

She's somethin' better'n that. 

PETER 

Yes. 

[To himself, musingly.] 
A good woman. 

MARY ELLEN 

She wants to go right on, same's we've been goin'. 
An' she seems to know we can go on. You an' I 
know it — but she knows it, too. 

[Peter nods, turns away for a minute, then turns back as if 
taking up everyday life.] 

PETER 

What you goin' to do to-day? 

MARY ELLEN 

Oh, git the rooms in order. Stir up some cake. 
What you goin' to do? 



210 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

PETER 

I thought mebbe I'd bring another load o' loam an' 
put it on your long beds. 

MARY ELLEN 

Ain't it wonderful to have things to do ? 

PETER 

I'm goin' to take some measurements, too, an' see 
if I can't git you in another cupboard by the pantry 
door. 

MARY ELLEN 

Jane'll like that, too. 

[She opens the shutters and the sun, streaming in, rests on 
the vase of apple blossoms and on her.] 

Peter, ain't it bright ! I didn't think the day was 

gittin' on so fast. 

[Peter compares his watch with the clock.] 

How's the clock? 

PETER 
[Smiling at her.] 
'Bout right. 

[He steps into the pantry and begins measuring the wall 
space.] 

MARY ELLEN 

Anyways, we're goin' with the sun. 

[She stands a moment smiling and then begins singing softly 
to herself the tune "Come, Lasses and Lads".] 

CURTAIN. 



SONGS FOR ACT II 

THE APPLE SONG 
[Tune: "Come, Lasses and Lads"}^ 

O here's to the health 

And here's to the wealth 

Of apple tree bark and bough! 

O bloom and O fruit 

And O mothering root, 

We're hailing you, blessing you now ! 

O Baldwin and Sweet and Spy! 

O Hubbardston, hanging high! 

May you dance and blow 

And swing and grow 

And fall for us by and bye! 

EARLY ONE MORNING 

Early one morning, just as the sun was rising, 
I fared afield, singing the apple trees a-blow. 
Woven on Spring's loom. 
Pink bloom and white bloom: 
O ye flow'rs of May, why drift ye downward like the 
snow? 

211 



212 CHILDREN OF EARTH 

Gone are the months when ye stood there bare and 

bowerless, 
Before the birds built, or the streamlets did flow. 
Woven on Spring's loom, 
Pink bloom and white bloom: 
O ye flow'rs of May, why drift ye downward like the 
snow? 

Dream ye of days when the painted fruit is red'ning? 

And would ye now waste your sweet beauties, to grow ? 
Woven on Spring's loom. 
Pink bloom and white bloom : 

O ye flow'rs of May, why drift ye downward like the 
snow? 

So did I sing as the early sun was rising, 
And loud the birds quired to the apple trees a-blow. 
Woven on Spring's loom, 
Pink bloom and white bloom: 
O ye flow'rs of May, why drift ye downward like the 
snow? 



SUMMER IS ICUMEN IN 

To "Summer Is Icumen In" the old English words 
are sung. 



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